I When my dreams come true–when my dreams come true– Shall I lean from out my casement, in the starlight and the dew, To listen–smile and listen to the tinkle of the strings Of the sweet guitar my lover’s fingers fondle, as he sings? And as the nude moon slowly, slowly shoulders into view, Shall […]

When chirping crickets fainter cry, And pale stars blossom in the sky, And twilight’s gloom has dimmed the bloom And blurred the butterfly: When locust-blossoms fleck the walk, And up the tiger-lily stalk The glow-worm crawls and clings and falls And glimmers down the garden-walls: When buzzing things, with double wings Of crisp and raspish […]

My Mary, O my Mary! The simmer-skies are blue; The dawnin’ brings the dazzle, An’ the gloamin’ brings the dew,– The mirk o’ nicht the glory O’ the moon, an’ kindles, too, The stars that shift aboon the lift.– But nae thing brings me you! Where is it, O my Mary, Ye are biding a’ […]

I In youth he wrought, with eyes ablur, Lorn-faced and long of hair– In youth–in youth he painted her A sister of the air– Could clasp her not, but felt the stir Of pinions everywhere. II She lured his gaze, in braver days, And tranced him sirenwise; And he did paint her, through a haze […]

Illileo, the moonlight seemed lost across the vales– The stars but strewed the azure as an armor’s scattered scales; The airs of night were quiet as the breath of silken sails; And all your words were sweeter than the notes of nightingales. Illileo Legardi, in the garden there alone, With your figure carved of fervor, […]

I crave, dear Lord, No boundless hoard Of gold and gear, Nor jewels fine, Nor lands, nor kine, Nor treasure-heaps of anything– Let but a little hut be mine Where at the hearthstone I may hear The cricket sing, And have the shine Of one glad woman’s eyes to make, For my poor sake, Our […]

Nothin’ to say, my daughter! Nothin’ at all to say! Gyrls that’s in love, I’ve noticed, ginerly has their way! Yer mother did, afore you, when her folks objected to me– Yit here I am, and here you air; and yer mother–where is she? You look lots like yer mother: Purty much same in size; […]

To hear her sing–to hear her sing– It is to hear the birds of Spring In dewy groves on blooming sprays Pour out their blithest roundelays. It is to hear the robin trill At morning, or the whippoorwill At dusk, when stars are blossoming To hear her sing–to hear her sing! To hear her sing–it […]

A woman’s figure, on a ground of night Inlaid with sallow stars that dimly stare Down in the lonesome eyes, uplifted there As in vague hope some alien lance of light Might pierce their woe. The tears that blind her sight– The salt and bitter blood of her despair– Her hands toss back through torrents […]

Just the airiest, fairiest slip of a thing, With a Gainsborough hat, like a butterfly’s wing, Tilted up at one side with the jauntiest air, And a knot of red roses sown in under there Where the shadows are lost in her hair. Then a cameo face, carven in on a ground Of that shadowy […]

Last night–how deep the darkness was! And well I knew its depths, because I waded it from shore to shore, Thinking to reach the light no more. She would not even touch my hand.– The winds rose and the cedars fanned The moon out, and the stars fled back In heaven and hid–and all was […]

The beauty of her hair bewilders me– Pouring adown the brow, its cloven tide Swirling about the ears on either side And storming around the neck tumultuously: Or like the lights of old antiquity Through mullioned windows, in cathedrals wide, Spilled moltenly o’er figures deified In chastest marble, nude of drapery. And so I love […]

When Lide married him –w’y, she had to jes dee-fy The whole poppilation!–But she never bat’ an eye! Her parents begged, and threatened–she must give him up–that he Wuz jes “a common drunkard!”–And he wuz, appearantly.– Swore they’d chase him off the place Ef he ever showed his face– Long after she’d eloped with him […]

When Age comes on!– The deepening dusk is where the dawn Once glittered splendid, and the dew In honey-drips, from red rose-lips Was kissed away by me and you.– And now across the frosty lawn Black foot-prints trail, and Age comes on– And Age comes on! And biting wild-winds whistle through Our tattered hopes–and Age […]

A song of Long Ago: Sing it lightly–sing it low– Sing it softly–like the lisping of the lips we used to know When our baby-laughter spilled From the glad hearts ever filled With music blithe as robin ever trilled! Let the fragrant summer-breeze, And the leaves of locust-trees, And the apple-buds and blossoms, and the […]

The touches of her hands are like the fall Of velvet snowflakes; like the touch of down The peach just brushes ‘gainst the garden wall; The flossy fondlings of the thistle-wisp Caught in the crinkle of a leaf of brown The blighting frost hath turned from green to crisp. Soft as the falling of the […]

“Where shall we land you, sweet?”–Swinburne. All listlessly we float Out seaward in the boat That beareth Love. Our sails of purest snow Bend to the blue below And to the blue above. Where shall we land? We drift upon a tide Shoreless on every side, Save where the eye Of Fancy sweeps far lands […]

I am tired of this! Nothing else but loving! Nothing else but kiss and kiss, Coo, and turtle-doving! Can’t you change the order some? Hate me just a little–come! Lay aside your “dears,” “Darlings,” “kings,” and “princes!”– Call me knave, and dry your tears– Nothing in me winces,– Call me something low and base– Something […]

The orchard lands of Long Ago! O drowsy winds, awake, and blow The snowy blossoms back to me, And all the buds that used to be! Blow back along the grassy ways Of truant feet, and lift the haze Of happy summer from the trees That trail their tresses in the seas Of grain that […]

The deadnin’ and the thicket’s jes’ a b’ilin’ full o’ June, From the rattle o’ the cricket, to the yaller-hammer’s tune; And the catbird in the bottom and the sap-suck on the snag, Seems’s ef they cain’t–od-rot-’em!–jes’ do nothin’ else but brag! There’ music in the twitter o’ the bluebird and the jay, And that […]