Volume Ii Part 44 (2/2)

Frown not with averted eyes!

Joy's a flower That is born a G.o.d, and dies In an hour.

Take me, for the Summer closes, And your life is but a rose's.

Edmund Gosse [1849-1928]

PLYMOUTH HARBOR

Oh, what know they of harbors Who toss not on the sea!

They tell of fairer havens But none so fair there be

As Plymouth town outstretching Her quiet arms to me; Her breast's broad welcome spreading From Mewstone to Penlee.

Ah, with this home-thought, darling, Come crowding thoughts of thee.

Oh, what know they of harbors Who toss not on the sea!

Mrs. Ernest Radford [1858-

THE SERF'S SECRET

I know a secret, such a one The hawthorn blossoms spider-spun, The dew-damp daisies in the gra.s.s Laugh up to greet me as I pa.s.s To meet the upland sun.

It is that I would rather be The little page, on bended knee, Who stoops to gather up her train Beneath the porch-lamp's ruby rain Than hold a realm in fee.

It is that in her scornful eye, Too hid for courtly sneer to spy, I saw, one day, a look which said That I, and only I, might shed Love-light across her sky.

I know a secret, such a one The hawthorn blossoms spider-spun, The dew-damp daisies in the gra.s.s Laugh up to greet me as I pa.s.s To meet the upland sun.

William Vaughn Moody [1869-1910]

”O, INEXPRESSIBLE AS SWEET”

O, inexpressible as sweet, Love takes my voice away; I cannot tell thee when we meet What most I long to say.

But hadst thou hearing in thy heart To know what beats in mine, Then shouldst thou walk, where'er thou art, In melodies divine.

So warbling birds lift higher notes Than to our ears belong; The music fills their throbbing throats, But silence steals the song.

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