Part 6 (1/2)

VALE

Good-bye, sweet friend, good-bye, And all the world must be Between my friend and me; And nothing is, dear heart, But hands that meet to part; Good-bye, sweet friend, good-bye.

Good-bye, sweet love, good-bye, And one long grave must be Between my love and me; What comfort there, dear heart, For hands that meet to part?

Good-bye, sweet love, good-bye.

THE SKELETON IN THE CUPBOARD

Just this one day in all the year Let all be one, let all be dear; Wife, husband, child in fond embrace, And thrust the phantom from its place.

No bitter words, no frowning brow, Disturb the Christmas festal, now The skeleton's behind the door.

Nor let the child, with looks askance, Find out its sad inheritance From souls that held no happiness, Of home, where love is seldom guest; But in his coming years retain This one sweet night that had no pain; The skeleton's behind the door.

In vain you raise the wa.s.sail bowl, And pledge your pa.s.sion, soul to soul.

You hear the sweet bells ring in rhyme, You wreath the room for Christmas time In vain. The solemn silence falls, The death watch ticks within the walls; The skeleton taps on the door.

Then let him back into his place, Let us sit out the old disgrace; Nor seek the phantom now to lay, That haunted us through every day; For plainer is the ghost; useless Is this pretence of happiness; The skeleton taps on the door.

YOU WILL NOT COME AGAIN

The green has come to the leafless tree, The earth brings forth its grain; The flower has come for the honey bee: You will not come again.

The birds have come to the empty nest, All winter full of rain; So music has come where the silence was: You will not come again.

Love will come for the weak lambs' cry; Alas for my heart's dull pain!

In the cycle of change I alone am lone: You will not come again.

THE WRECKAGE

Love lit a beacon in thine eyes, And I out in the storm, And lo! the night had taken wings; I dream me safe and warm.

Love lit a beacon in thine eyes, A wreckers' light for me; My heart is broken on the rocks; I perish in the sea.

I AM THE WORLD

I am the song, that rests upon the cloud; I am the sun: I am the dawn, the day, the hiding shroud, When dusk is done.

I am the changing colours of the tree; The flower uncurled: I am the melancholy of the sea; I am the world.