An old love letter

  I was reading a letter of yours to-day,
    The date—­O a thousand years ago! 
  The postmark is there—­the month was May: 
    How, in God’s name, did I let you go? 
  What wonderful things for a girl to say! 
    And to think that I hadn’t the sense to know—­
  What wonderful things for a man to hear! 
  O still beloved, O still most dear.

  “Duty” I called it, and hugged the word
    Close to my side, like a shirt of hair;
  You laughed, I remember, laughed like a bird,
    And somehow I thought that you didn’t care. 
  Duty!—­and Love, with her bosom bare! 
    No wonder you laughed, as we parted there—­
  Then your letter came with this last good-by—­
  And I sat splendidly down to die.

  Nor Duty, nor Death, would have aught of me: 
    “He is Love’s,” they said, “he cannot be ours;”
  And your laugh pursued me o’er land and sea,
    And your face like a thousand flowers. 
  “Tis her gown!” I said to each rustling tree,
    “She is coming!” I said to the whispered showers;
  But you came not again, and this letter of yours
  Is all that endures—­all that endures.

  These aching words—­in your swift firm hand,
    That stirs me still as the day we met—–­
  That now ’tis too late to understand,
    Say “hers is the face you shall ne’er forget;”
  That, though Space and Time be as shifting sand,
    We can never part—­we are meeting yet. 
  This song, beloved, where’er you be,
  Your heart shall hear and shall answer me.

  Too late

  Too late I bring my heart, too late ’tis yours;
  Too late to bring the true love that endures;
    Too long, unthrift, I gave it here and there,
  Spent it in idle love and idle song;
    Youth seemed so rich, with kisses all to spare—­
  Too late! too long!

  Too late, O fairy woman; dreams and dust
  Are in your hair, your face is dimly thrust
    Among the flowers; and Time, that all forgets,
  Even you forgets, and only I prolong
    The face I love, with ache of vain regrets—­
  Too late! too long!

  Too long I tarried, and too late I come,
  O eyes and lips so strangely sealed and dumb: 
    My heart—­what is it now, beloved, to you? 
  My love—­that doth your holy silence wrong? 
    Ah! fairy face, star-crowned and chrismed with dew—­
  Too late! too long!

  The door ajar

  My door is always left ajar,
  Lest you should suddenly slip through,
  A little breathless frightened star;
  Each footfall sets my heart abeat,
  I always think it may be you,
  Stolen in from the street.

  My ears are evermore attent,
  Waiting in vain for one blest sound—­
  The little frock, with lilac scent,
  That used to whisper up the stair;
  Then in my arms with one wild bound—­
  Your lips, your eyes, your hair. 
  Never the south wind through the rose,
  Brushing its petals with soft hand,
  Made such sweet talking as your clothes,
  Rustling and fragrant as you came,
  And at my aching door would stand—­
  Then vanish into flame.