Part 3 (1/2)

When jay birds sing, and thrushes fret, When snowfalls come in flakes of jet, When hearts that shelter love are light, I may forget.

When mortal life no cares beset, When April brings no violet, When wrong no longer wars with right, When all hope's s.h.i.+ps shall heave in sight, And memory holds no least regret, I may forget.

TRIFLES

Only a spar from a broken s.h.i.+p Washed in by a careless wave; But it brought back the smile of a vanished lip, And his past peered out of the grave.

Only a leaf that an idle breeze Tossed at her pa.s.sing feet; But she seemed to stand under the dear old trees, And life again was sweet.

Only the bar of a tender strain They sang in days gone by; But the old love woke in her heart again, The love they had sworn should die.

Only the breath of a faint perfume That floated up from a rose; But the bolts slid back from a marble tomb, And I looked on a dear dead face.

Who vaunts the might of a human will, When a perfume or a sound Can wake a Past that we bade lie still, And open a long closed wound?

COURAGE

Whether the way be dark or light My soul shall sing as I journey on, As sweetly sing in the deeps of night As it sang in the burst of the golden dawn.

Nothing can crush me, or silence me long, Though the heart be bowed, yet the soul will rise, Higher and higher on wings of song, Till it swims like the lark in a sea of skies.

Though youth may fade, and love grow cold, And friends prove false, and best hopes blight, Yet the sun will wade in waves of gold, And the stars in glory will s.h.i.+ne at night.

Though all earth's joys from my life are missed, And I of the whole world stand bereft, Yet dawns will be purple and amethyst, And I cannot be sad while the seas are left.

For I am a part of the mighty whole; I belong to the system of life and death.

I am under the law of a Great Central, And strong with the courage of love and faith.

THE OTHER

All alone with my heart to-night I sit, and wonder, and sigh.

What is she like, is she dark, or light, This other woman who has the right To love him better than I?

We never have spoken her name, we two; There was no need somehow, But she lives, and loves, and her heart is true; From the very first this much I knew, So why should it hurt me now.

I fancy her tall, and I think her fair, Oh! fairer than I by half.

With sweet, calm eyes, and a wealth of hair, And a heart as perfectly free from care As is her silvery laugh.