he sand,
This tear?

Why, when the fields were red with May
When you and I together swore;
Is May so very far away,
Was all so different then, before
Today?

And did the gods above then smile
When we believed that love would last,
Counting its heart-beats on the dial
Of hours that have too soon slipped past,
The while.

Two boats upon a sea of glass--
A little strength, a little trust;
Yet let the hand of Fate but pass,
Could they withstand the storm-cloud's gust,
Alas!

So, though not knowing, yet must I
Forget one day and feel no more
Your love, which dreamed not e'er to die.
Thank God for that--I close my door.
Good-bye.

The End of the Day

The day is done and every hour is spent
And now it lies a-dying in the west,
Yet with what wonder those last moments blest
Crown all with the chaste kiss of sweet content;
For nature's minstrels sing a carol pent
With the soft music of the spheres suppressed
In one great strain--the while upon night's breast
The dying day sinks down in languishment.

And in those last faint breaths as 'twere in sooth
The halo of some saint, a glowing light
Of purest gold streams through the darkened sky,
A light more wondrous than the dawn of youth--
For 'tis a flame cleft out the veil of night
From that eternal dawn that ne'er can die!

Tristesse

If you were not away
These trees, this south-wind and this dreary day
Would all be mad with joyous ecstasy;
But you are gone, so mourning they with me
Find bitter-sweet in idle fantasy.
How glad, how mad, how gay,
If you were not away!

Interlude

Sometimes from out the rush of pulsing days,
These days whose poetry was lost in prose
So long ago, left desolate on those
Far childhood paths--yet, sometimes from the haze
Of half-forgotten years, fall on our ways
Now drear, a strain of song, a June-blown rose.
Ah, sweet, so sweet unto a heart that knows
The memory of once-remembered Mays!

Only a moment's interlude, and yet
How the heart quaffs the draught that thrills and thrills
Its soul, finding again youth's mysteries.
What matter if tomorrow we forget--
Today the stillness of the sun-lit hills
And the low drowsy hum of summer bees!

To You, Dear Heart

To you, dear heart, whom I have never kno