I deck myself with silks and jewelry, I plume myself like any mated dove: They praise my rustling show, and never see With rosemary and myrrh, For in quick spring the sap is all astir. Perhaps some saints in glory guess the truth, "Her heart is breaking for a little love." And leap and sing for mirth, When spring-time wakes and clothes and feeds the earth. Yet saith a saint: "Take patience for thy scathe"; Yet saith an angel: "Wait, for thou shalt prove True best is last, true life is born of death, O thou, heart-broken for a little love! Then love shall fill thy girth, And love make fat thy dearth, When new spring builds new heaven and clean new earth." LIFE AND DEATH. L' IFE is not sweet. One day it will be sweet To shut our eyes and die : Nor feel the wild-flowers blow, nor birds dart by Nor grass grow long above our heads and feet, Nor know who sits in our accustomed seat. Life is not good. One day it will be good To sleep meanwhile: so not to feel the wane Nor hear the foamy lashing of the main, Nor mark the blackened bean-fields, nor where stood Rich ranks of golden grain, Only dead refuse stubble clothe the plain : Asleep from risk, asleep from pain. BIRD OR BEAST? ID any bird come flying D'After Adam and Eve, When the door was shut against them And they sat down to grieve? I think not Eve's peacock And I think not Adam's eagle; But a dove may be. Did any beast come pushing I think not a lion, Though his strength is such : But an innocent loving lamb May have done as much. If the dove preached from her bough And the lamb from his sod, The lamb and the dove Were preachers sent from God. ΙΟ EVE. "W HILE I sit at the door, Mine eye weepeth sore For sorrow and sin : As a tree my sin stands To darken all lands; Death is the fruit it bore. "How have Eden bowers grown I chose the Tree of Death. "Hadst thou but said me nay, Adam, my brother, I might have pined away; God might have let thee stay By putting me away "I, Eve, sad mother Of all who must live, Plucked bitterest fruit to give Thus she sat weeping, And set aside his feast. The mouse paused in his walk The eagle gave a cry |