Part 4 (1/2)

VISTAS

As I walked through the rumorous streets Of the wind-rustled, elm-shaded city Where all of the houses were friends And the trees were all lovers of her, The spell of its old enchantment Was woven again to subdue me With magic of flickering shadows, Blown branches and leafy stir.

Street after street, as I pa.s.sed, Lured me and beckoned me onward With memories frail as the odor Of lilac adrift on the air.

At the end of each breeze-blurred vista She seemed to be watching and waiting, With leaf shadows over her gown And suns.h.i.+ne gilding her hair.

For there was a dream that the kind G.o.d Withheld, while granting us many-- But surely, I think, we shall come Sometime, at the end, she and I, To the heaven He keeps for all tired souls, The quiet suburban gardens Where He Himself walks in the evening Beneath the rose-dropping sky And watches the balancing elm trees Sway in the early stars.h.i.+ne When high in their murmurous arches The night breeze ruffles by.

A NUN

One glance and I had lost her in the riot Of tangled cries.

She trod the clamor with a cloistral quiet Deep in her eyes As though she heard the muted music only That silence makes Among dim mountain summits and on lonely Deserted lakes.

There is some broken song her heart remembers From long ago, Some love lies buried deep, some pa.s.sion's embers Smothered in snow, Far voices of a joy that sought and missed her Fail now, and cease....

And this has given the deep eyes of G.o.d's sister Their dreadful peace.

LOVE AMONG THE CLOVER

”If you dare,” she said, And oh, her breath was clover-sweet!

Clover nodded over her, Her lips were clover red.

Blackbirds fluted down the wind, The bobolinks were mad with joy, The wind was playing in her hair, And ”If you dare,” she said.

Clover billowed down the wind Far across the happy fields, Clover on the breezy hills Leaned along the skies And all the nodding clover heads And little clouds with silver sails And all the heaven's dreamy blue Were mirrored in her eyes.

Her laughing lips were clover-red When long ago I kissed her there And made for one swift moment all My heaven and earth complete.

I've loved among the roses since And love among the lilies now, But love among the clover...

Her breath was clover-sweet.

O wise, wise-hearted boy and girl Who played among the clover bloom!

I think I was far wiser then Than now I dare to be.

For I have lost that Eden now, I cannot find my Eden now, And even should I find it now, I've thrown away the key.

CERTAIN AMERICAN POETS

They cowered inert before the study fire While mighty winds were ranging wide and free, Urging their torpid fancies to aspire With ”Euhoe! Bacchus! Have a cup of tea.”

They tripped demure from church to lecture-hall, Shunning the snare of farthingales and curls.

Woman they thought half angel and half doll, The Muses' temple a boarding-school for girls.