Part 10 (2/2)

O Wonder of all wonders, O Love-- Wrought of sweet sounds and of dreaming!-- Why do you not emerge From the lilac pale petals of dusk, And come to me here in the gardens Where the wind and the snow are?

Beauty and Peace are here-- And unceasing music-- And a loneliness chill and wistful, Like the feeling of death.

Like a crystal lily a star Leans from its leaves of silver And gleams in the sky; And golden and faint in the shadows You wait indistinctly,-- Like a phantom lamp that appears In the mirror of distance that hovers By the window at twilight-- You have come--and we stand together, With questioning eyes-- Dreaming and cold and ghostly In an empty garden that seems Like an empty stage.

ZOe AKINS

A SONG FOR WINTER

Speak not of snow and cold and rime Now they prevail.

Would you have joy in winter-time, Think of the pale New green that comes, of blossoming lilacs think, Larkspur, and borders of the fringed pink.

And sing, if winter grants you heart to sing, Of summer and of spring.

Would you secure some happiness In frosty hours, Trust to the eye external less Than to the powers Of inward sight that even now may show Opaline seas, blue hilltops, and the glow Of daybreak on the glades where thrushes sing In summer and in spring.

Gaze not on fettered lake and brook And sullen skies, But in your happy memory look Where beauty lies As once it was, as it shall be again When suns.h.i.+ne floods the fields of blowing grain, And sing, as must who would in winter sing, Of summer and of spring.

MRS. SCHUYLER VAN RENSSELAER

WINGS AND SONG

”I MEANT TO DO MY WORK TO-DAY”

_I meant to do my work to-day-- But a brown bird sang in the apple-tree And a b.u.t.terfly flitted across the field, And all the leaves were calling me._

_And the wind went sighing over the land, Tossing the gra.s.ses to and fro, And a rainbow held out its s.h.i.+ning hand-- So what could I do but laugh and go?_

RICHARD LE GALLIENNE

THE HUMMINGBIRD

Through tree-top and clover a-whirr and away!

Hi! little rover, stop and stay.

Merry, absurd, excited wag-- Lilliput-bird in Brobdingnag!

Wild and free as the wild thrush, and warier-- Was ever a bee merrier, airier?

Wings folded so, a second or two-- Was ever a crow more solemn than you?

A-whirr again over the garden, away!

Who calls, little rover, Bird or fay?

Agleam and aglow, incarnate bliss!

What do you know that we humans miss?

<script>