Good-bye–yes, I am going.Sudden? Well, you are right;But a startling truth came home to meWith sudden force last night.What is it? Shall I tell you?Nay, that is why I go.I am running away from the battlefieldTurning my back on the foe. Riddles? You think me cruel!Have you not been most kind?Why, when you question me […]

Let us begin, dear love, where we left off;Tie up the broken threads of that old dream,And go on happy as before, and seemLovers again, though all the world may scoff. Let us forget the graves which lie betweenOur parting and our meeting, and the tearsThat rusted out the gold-work of the years,The frosts that […]

Here now forevermore our lives must part.My path leads there, and yours another way.What shall we do with this fond love, dear heart?It grows a heavier burden day by day. Hide it? In all earth’s caverns, void and vast,There is not room enough to hide it, dear;Not even the mighty storehouse of the pastCould cover […]

All love that has not friendship for its baseIs like a mansion built upon the sand.Though brave its walls as any in the land,And its tall turrets lift their heads in grace;Though skilful and accomplished artists traceMost beautiful designs on every hand,And gleaming statues in dim niches stand,And fountains play in some flow’r-hidden place: Yet, […]

Well, how has it been with you since we metThat last strange time of a hundred times?When we met to swear that we could forget–I your caresses, and you my rhymes–The rhyme of my lays that rang like a bell,And the rhyme of my heart with yours, as well? How has it been since we […]

In the midnight of darkness and terror,When I would grope nearer to God,With my back to a record of errorAnd the highway of sin I have trod,There come to me shapes I would banish–The shapes of the deeds I have done;And I pray and I plead till they vanish–All vanish and leave me, save one. […]

Wherefore in dreams are sorrows borne anew,A healed wound opened, or the past revived?Last night in my deep sleep I dreamed of you;Again the old love woke in me, and thrivedOn looks of fire, and kisses, and sweet wordsLike silver waters purling in a stream,Or like the amorous melodies of birds:A dream–a dream! Again upon […]

Do you remember the name I wore–The old pet-name of Little Queen–In the dear, dead days that are no more,The happiest days of our lives, I ween?For we loved with that passionate love of youthThat blesses but once with its perfect bliss–A love that, in spite of its trust and truth,Seems never to thrive in […]

I was smoking a cigarette;Maud, my wife, and the tenor, McKey,Were singing together a blithe duet,And days it were better I should forgetCame suddenly back to me–Days when life seemed a gay masque ball,And to love and be loved was the sum of it all. As they sang together, the whole scene fled,The room’s rich […]

The year has but one June, dear friend;The year has but one June;And when that perfect month doth end,The robin’s song, though loud, though long,Seems never quite in tune. The rose, though still its blushing faceBy bee and bird is seen,May yet have lost that subtle grace–That nameless spell the winds knowWhich makes it garden’s […]

Yes, yes! I love thee, Guilo; thee alone.Why dost thou sigh, and wear that face of sorrow?The sunshine is to-day’s, although it shoneOn yesterday, and may shine on to-morrow. I love but thee, my Guilo! be content;The greediest heart can claim but present pleasure.The future is thy God’s. The past is spent.To-day is thine; clasp […]

[AFTER JAMES THOMSON.] As I came through the Valley of Despair,As I came through the valley, on my sight,More awful than the darkness of the night,Shone glimpses of a Past that had been fair,And memories of eyes that used to smile,And wafts of perfume from a vanished isle,As I came through the valley. As I […]

Alone she sat with her accusing heart,That, like a restless comrade frightened sleep,And every thought that found her, left a dartThat hurt her so, she could not even weep. Her heart that once had been a cup well filledWith love’s red wine, save for some drops of gallShe knew was empty; though it had not […]

I and new love, in all its living bloom,Sat vis-a-vis, while tender twilight hoursWent softly by us, treading as on flowers.Then suddenly I saw within the roomThe old love, long since lying in its tomb.It dropped the cerecloth from its fleshless faceAnd smiled on me, with a remembered graceThat, like the noontide, lit the gloaming’s […]

Dost thou not tire, Isaura, of this play?“What play?” Why, this old play of winning hearts!Nay, now, lift not thine eyes in that feigned way:‘Tis all in vain–I know thee and thine arts. Let us be frank, Isaura. I have madeA study of thee; and while I admireThe practised skill with which thy plans are […]

Changed? Yes, I will confess it–I have changed.I do not love in the old fond way.I am your friend still–time has not estrangedOne kindly feeling of that vanished day. But the bright glamour which made life a dream,The rapture of that time, its sweet content,Like visions of a sleeper’s brain they seem–And yet I cannot […]

I think that the bitterest sorrow or painOf love unrequited, or cold death’s woe,Is sweet compared to that hour when we knowThat some grand passion is on the wane; When we see that the glory and glow and graceWhich lent a splendor to night and dayAre surely fading, and showing the grayAnd dull groundwork of […]

I have lived this life as the skeptic lives it;I have said the sweetness was less than the gall;Praising, nor cursing, the Hand that gives it,I have drifted aimlessly through it all.I have scoffed at the tale of a so-called heaven;I have laughed at the thought of a Supreme Friend;I have said that it only […]

Time flies. The swift hours hurry byAnd speed us on to untried ways;New seasons ripen, perish, die,And yet love stays.The old, old love–like sweet, at first,At last like bitter wine–I know not if it blest or curstThy life and mine. Time flies. In vain our prayers, our tears!We cannot tempt him to delays;Down to the […]

The solemn Sea of Silence lies between us;I know thou livest, and them lovest me,And yet I wish some white ship would come sailingAcross the ocean, beating word from thee. The dead calm awes me with its awful stillness.No anxious doubts or fears disturb my breast;I only ask some little wave of language,To stir this […]