Part 5 (1/2)

WHAT WILL YOU GIVE?

What will you give me, if I will wed?

”A golden gown To come sweetly down, And deck you from foot to head.”

How will you keep me, if I am cold?

”By a heart so warm, The bravest storm Dare not force through my strong hands' hold.”

How will you please me, if I should thirst?

”Why by the rape Of the purple grape, Which the summer and sun have nursed.”

If I should hunger what may I eat?

”For you the skies The falcon flies, And the hounds on the stag are fleet.”

How can you comfort when fair youth dies, When the spirit's fain For a purer gain, Than the satisfied flesh supplies?

”But this I promise, when starved and cold A lonely soul Finds for its goal A six-foot bed and churchyard mould.”

A MEADOW TRAGEDY

Here's a meadow full of suns.h.i.+ne Ripe gra.s.ses lush and high; There's a reaper on the roadway, And a lark hangs in the sky.

There's a nest of love enclosing Three little beaks that cry; The reapers in the meadow And a lark hangs in the sky.

Here's a mead all full of summer, And tragedy goes by With a knife amongst the gra.s.ses, And a song up in the sky.

AN ECLIPSE

Let there be an end And all be done; Pa.s.s over, fair eclipse, That hides the sun.

Dear face that shades the light And shadows me, Begone, and give me peace, And set me free.

THE SCALLOP Sh.e.l.l

A scallop sh.e.l.l, loosed by the lifting tide, Had left a friendly sh.o.r.e, the seas to brave; Its lips of pink and snowy hollow shone Pure in the sun, a pearl upon the wave.

It gleamed and pa.s.sed-you burdened it with love, With sweet long futures, new and dreamy days: And named for me-because I held your hopes.