Cool! cool! cool!Cool and sweetThe feel of the moss at my feet!And sweet and coolThe touch of the wind, of the wind! Cool wind out of the blue,At the touch of youA little wave crinkles and flowsAll over me down to my toes. “Coo-loo! Coo-loo!”Hear the doves in the tree-tops croon.“Coo-loo! Coo-loo!”Love comes soon. “June! […]

Good-morning, Karlene. It’s a veryFine beautiful world we are in.Well, you do look as ripe as a berry;And, pardon me, such a real chin! And may I–Ah, thank you; the pleasureIs mine; just one kiss by your ear!–May I introduce myself as yourMost dutiful godfather, dear? I have fumed, like champagne that is fizzy,To pay […]

Word of a little one born in the West,–How like a sea-bird it comes from the sea,Out of the league-weary waters’ unrestBlown with white wings, for a token, to me! Blown with a skriel and a flurry of plumes(Sea-spray and flight-rapture whirled in a gleam!)Here for a sign of the comrade that loomsLarge in the […]

Here’s to you, Arthur! You and IHave seen a lot of stormy weather,Since first we clinked cups on the slyAt school together. The winds of fate have had their willAnd blown our crafts so far apartWe hardly knew if either stillWere on the chart. But now I know the love of manIs more than time […]

It is not anything he says,It’s just his presence and his smile,The blarney of his silencesThat cocker and beguile.

When Kavin comes back from the barber,Although he no longer is young,One cheek is as soft as his heart,And the other as smooth as his tongue.

I love the lazy Southern spring,The way she melts around a chapAnd lets the great magnolias flingTheir languid petals in his lap. I love to travel down half-wayAnd meet her coming up the earth,With hurdy-gurdy men who playAnd make the children dance for mirth. But best of all I love to steerFor quiet corners not […]

Three secrets that never were said:The stir of the sap in the spring,The desire of a man to a maid,The urge of a poet to sing.

The words that pass from lip to lipFor souls still out of reach!A friend for that companionshipThat’s deeper than all speech!

I am fevered with the sunset,I am fretful with the bay,For the wander-thirst is on meAnd my soul is in Cathay. There’s a schooner in the offing,With her topsails shot with fire,And my heart has gone aboard herFor the Islands of Desire. I must forth again to-morrow!With the sunset I must beHull down on the […]

Barney McGee, there’s no end of good luck in you,Will-o’-the-wisp, with a flicker of Puck in you,Wild as a bull-pup and all of his pluck in you,–Let a man tread on your coat and he’ll see!–Eyes like the lakes of Killarney for clarity,Nose that turns up without any vulgarity,Smile like a cherub, and hair that […]

Once I met a soncy maid,Soncy maid, soncy maid,Once I met a soncy maidIn the Wayland willows. All her hair was goldy brown,Goldy brown, goldy brown,In the sun a single braidTo her waist hung down. Honey bees, honey bees,You are roving fellows!Idly went the doxy windIn the Wayland willows. There I caught her eye a-dance,Through […]

Saint Kavin was a gentleman,He came from Tipperary;And woman was the only thingThat ever made him scary. For Kavin was a tender youth,And he was very simple;He feared the wiles of maiden smiles,And fainted at a dimple. But when Kathleen at seventeenCame down the street one morning,The luck of man came over himAnd took him […]

Give a rouse, then, in the MaytimeFor a life that knows no fear!Turn night-time into daytimeWith the sunlight of good cheer!For it’s always fair weatherWhen good fellows get together,With a stein on the table and a good song ringing clear. When the wind comes up from CubaAnd the birds are on the wing,And our hearts […]

I dreamed of Sappho on a summer night.Her nightingales were singing in the treesBeside the castled river; and the windFell like a woman’s fingers on my cheek.And then I slept and dreamed and marked no change;The night went on with me into my dream.This only I remember, that I cried:“O Sappho! ere I leave this […]

I saw him go down to the water to bathe;He stood naked upon the bank. His breast was like a white cloud in the heaven,that catches the sun;It swelled with the sharp joy of the air. His legs rose with the spring and curve of young birches;The hollow of his back caught the blue shadows: […]

Heart to heart!And the stillness of night and the moonlight, like hushed breathingSilently, stealthily moving across thy hair! O womanly face!Tender and strong and lucent with infinite feeling,Shrinking with startled joy, like wind-struck water,And yet so frank, so unashamed of love! Ay, for there it is, love–that’s the deepest.Love’s not love in the dark.Light loves […]

This is not sadness in the wood;The yellowbirdFlits joying through the solitude,By no thought stirredSave of his little duskier mateAnd rompings jolly. If there’s a Dryad in the wood,She is not sad.Too wise the spirits are to brood;Divinely glad,They dream with countenance sedateNot melancholy.

It was June, and I was twenty.All my wisdom, poor but plenty,Never learned Festina lente.Youth is gone, but whither went he? Madeline came down the orchardWith a mischief in her eye,Half demure and half inviting,Melting, wayward, wistful, shy. Four bright eyes that found life lovely,And forgot to wonder why;Four warm lips at one love-lesson,Learned by […]

Dame of the night of hairLike blue smoke blown!World yet undreamed-of thereLurks to be known. Dame of the dizzy eyes,Lure of dim quests!World of what midnights liesUnder thy breasts! Dame of the quench of love,Give me to quaff!There’s all the world’s made ofUnder thy laugh. Dame of the dare of gods,Let the sky lower!Time, give […]