LOVE AND GRIEF

  Out of my heart, one treach’rous winter’s day,
  I locked young Love and threw the key away. 
  Grief, wandering widely, found the key,
  And hastened with it, straightway, back to me,
  With Love beside him.  He unlocked the door
  And bade Love enter with him there and stay. 
  And so the twain abide for evermore.

LOVE’S CHASTENING

  Once Love grew bold and arrogant of air,
  Proud of the youth that made him fresh and fair;
  So unto Grief he spake, “What right hast thou
  To part or parcel of this heart?” Grief’s brow
  Was darkened with the storm of inward strife;
  Thrice smote he Love as only he might dare,
  And Love, pride purged, was chastened all his life.

MORTALITY

  Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust,
  What of his loving, what of his lust? 
  What of his passion, what of his pain? 
  What of his poverty, what of his pride? 
  Earth, the great mother, has called him again: 
  Deeply he sleeps, the world’s verdict defied. 
  Shall he be tried again?  Shall he go free? 
  Who shall the court convene?  Where shall it be? 
  No answer on the land, none from the sea. 
  Only we know that as he did, we must: 
  You with your theories, you with your trust,—­
  Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust!

LOVE

  A life was mine full of the close concern
    Of many-voiced affairs.  The world sped fast;
    Behind me, ever rolled a pregnant past. 
  A present came equipped with lore to learn. 
  Art, science, letters, in their turn,
    Each one allured me with its treasures vast;
    And I staked all for wisdom, till at last
  Thou cam’st and taught my soul anew to yearn. 
    I had not dreamed that I could turn away
  From all that men with brush and pen had wrought;
    But ever since that memorable day
  When to my heart the truth of love was brought,
    I have been wholly yielded to its sway,
  And had no room for any other thought.

SHE GAVE ME A ROSE

  She gave a rose,
    And I kissed it and pressed it. 
  I love her, she knows,
    And my action confessed it. 
  She gave me a rose,
    And I kissed it and pressed it.

  Ah, how my heart glows,
    Could I ever have guessed it? 
  It is fair to suppose
    That I might have repressed it: 
  She gave me a rose,
    And I kissed it and pressed it.

  ’T was a rhyme in life’s prose
    That uplifted and blest it. 
  Man’s nature, who knows
    Until love comes to test it? 
  She gave me a rose,
    And I kissed it and pressed it.

DREAM SONG I