Volume Ii Part 23 (1/2)

SONGS ASCENDING

Love has been sung a thousand ways-- So let it be; The songs ascending in your praise Through all my days Are three.

Your cloud-white body first I sing; Your love was heaven's blue, And I, a bird, flew carolling In ring on ring Of you.

Your nearness is the second song; When G.o.d began to be, And bound you strongly, right or wrong, With his own thong, To me.

But oh, the song, eternal, high, That tops these two!-- You live forever, you who die, I am not I But you.

Witter Bynner [1881-

SONG

”Oh! Love,” they said, ”is King of Kings, And Triumph is his crown.

Earth fades in flame before his wings, And Sun and Moon bow down.”-- But that, I knew, would never do; And Heaven is all too high.

So whenever I meet a Queen, I said, I will not catch her eye.

”Oh! Love,” they said, and ”Love,” they said, ”The gift of Love is this; A crown of thorns about thy head, And vinegar to thy kiss!”-- But Tragedy is not for me; And I'm content to be gay.

So whenever I spied a Tragic Lady, I went another way.

And so I never feared to see You wander down the street, Or come across the fields to me On ordinary feet.

For what they'd never told me of, And what I never knew; It was that all the time, my love, Love would be merely you.

Rupert Brooke [1887-1915]

SONG

How do I love you?

I do not know.

Only because of you Gladly I go.

Only because of you Labor is sweet, And all the song of you Sings in my feet.

Only the thought of you Trembles and lies Just where the world begins-- Under my eyes.

Irene Rutherford McLeod [1891-