Volume Ii Part 101 (1/2)

He came to call me back from death To the bright world above.

I hear him yet with trembling breath Low calling, ”O sweet love!

Come back! The earth is just as fair; The flowers, the open skies are there; Come back to life and love!”

Oh! all my heart went out to him, And the sweet air above.

With happy tears my eyes were dim; I called him, ”O sweet love!

I come, for thou art all to me.

Go forth, and I will follow thee, Right back to life and love!

I followed through the cavern black; I saw the blue above.

Some terror turned me to look back: I heard him wail, ”O love!

What hast thou done! What hast thou done!”

And then I saw no more the sun, And lost were life and love.

Francis William Bourdillon [1852-1921]

A WOMAN'S THOUGHT

I am a woman--therefore I may not Call to him, cry to him, Fly to him, Bid him delay not!

Then when he comes to me, I must sit quiet: Still as a stone-- All silent and cold.

If my heart riot-- Crush and defy it!

Should I grow bold, Say one dear thing to him, All my life fling to him, Cling to him-- What to atone Is enough for my sinning!

This were the cost to me, This were my winning-- That he were lost to me.

Not as a lover At last if he part from me, Tearing my heart from me, Hurt beyond cure,-- Calm and demure Then must I hold me, In myself fold me, Lest he discover; Showing no sign to him By look of mine to him What he has been to me-- How my heart turns to him, Follows him, yearns to him, Prays him to love me.

Pity me, lean to me, Thou G.o.d above me!

Richard Watson Gilder [1844-1900]

LAUS VENERIS A Picture By Burne-Jones

Pallid with too much longing, White with pa.s.sion and prayer, G.o.ddess of love and beauty, She sits in the picture there,--

Sits with her dark eyes seeking Something more subtle still Than the old delights of loving Her measureless days to fill.

She has loved and been loved so often In her long, immortal years, That she tires of the worn-out rapture, Sickens of hopes and fears.

No joys or sorrows move her, Done with her ancient pride; For her head she found too heavy The crown she has cast aside.