Each small gleam was a voice, A lantern voice– In little songs of carmine, violet, green, gold. A chorus of colors came over the water; The wondrous leaf-shadow no longer wavered, No pines crooned on the hills, The blue night was elsewhere a silence, When the chorus of colors came over the water, Little songs […]

Ah, God, the way your little finger moved, As you thrust a bare arm backward And made play with your hair And a comb, a silly gilt comb –Ah, God–that I should suffer Because of the way a little finger moved.

Love, forgive me if I wish you grief, For in your grief You huddle to my breast, And for it Would I pay the price of your grief. You walk among men And all men do not surrender, And thus I understand That love reaches his hand In mercy to me. He had your picture […]

Tell me why, behind thee, I see always the shadow of another lover? Is it real, Or is this the thrice damned memory of a better happiness? Plague on him if he be dead, Plague on him if he be alive– A swinish numskull To intrude his shade Always between me and my peace!

Once I saw thee idly rocking –Idly rocking– And chattering girlishly to other girls, Bell-voiced, happy, Careless with the stout heart of unscarred womanhood, And life to thee was all light melody. I thought of the great storms of love as I knew it, Torn, miserable, and ashamed of my open sorrow, I thought of […]

I heard thee laugh, And in this merriment I defined the measure of my pain; I knew that I was alone, Alone with love, Poor shivering love, And he, little sprite, Came to watch with me, And at midnight, We were like two creatures by a dead camp-fire.

And yet I have seen thee happy with me I am no fool To poll stupidly into iron. I have heard your quick breaths And seen your arms writhe toward me; At those times –God help us– I was impelled to be a grand knight, And swagger and snap my fingers, And explain my mind […]

I wonder if sometimes in the dusk, When the brave lights that gild thy evenings Have not yet been touched with flame, I wonder if sometimes in the dusk Thou rememberest a time, A time when thou loved me And our love was to thee thy all? Is the memory rubbish now? An old gown […]

Love met me at noonday, –Reckless imp, To leave his shaded nights And brave the glare,– And I saw him then plainly For a bungler, A stupid, simpering, eyeless bungler, Breaking the hearts of brave people As the snivelling idiot-boy cracks his bowl, And I cursed him, Cursed him to and fro, back and forth, […]

I have seen thy face aflame For love of me, Thy fair arms go mad, Thy lips tremble and mutter and rave. And–surely– This should leave a man content? Thou lovest not me now, But thou didst love me, And in loving me once Thou gavest me an eternal privilege, For I can think of […]

Out of the low window could be seen three hickory trees placed irregularly in a meadow that was resplendent in spring-time green. Farther away, the old, dismal belfry of the village church loomed over the pines. A horse, meditating in the shade of one of the hickories, lazily swished his tail. The warm sunshine made […]

I When the able-bodied citizens of the village formed a company and marched away to the war, Major Tom Boldin assumed in a manner the burden of the village cares. Everybody ran to him when they felt obliged to discuss their affairs. The sorrows of the town were dragged before him. His little bench at […]

Richardson pulled up his horse and looked back over the trail, where the crimson serape of his servant flamed amid the dusk of the mesquite. The hills in the west were carved into peaks, and were painted the most profound blue. Above them, the sky was of that marvelous tone of green—like still, sun-shot water—which […]

A TALE INTENDED TO BE AFTER THE FACT. BEING THE EXPERIENCE OF FOUR MEN SUNK FROM THE STEAMER COMMODORE. I NONE of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, […]

I TWENTY-FIVE men were making a road out of a path up the hillside. The light batteries in the rear were impatient to advance, but first must be done all that digging and smoothing which gains no incrusted medals from war. The men worked like gardeners, and a road was growing from the old pack-animal […]

I Stimson stood in a corner and glowered. He was a fierce man and had indomitable whiskers, albeit he was very small. “That young tarrier,” he whispered to himself.”He wants to quit makin’ eyes at Lizzie. This is too much of a good thing. First thing you know, he’ll get fired.” His brow creased in […]

On the brow of a pine-plumed hillock there sat a little man with his back against a tree. A venerable pipe hung from his mouth, and smoke-wreaths curled slowly skyward, he was muttering to himself with his eyes fixed on an irregular black opening in the green wall of forest at the foot of the […]

It was late at night, and a fine rain was swirling softly down, causing the pavements to glisten with hue of steel and blue and yellow in the rays of the innumerable lights. A youth was trudging slowly, without enthusiasm, with his hands buried deep in his trousers pockets, toward the downtown places where beds […]

I “It looks as if it might rain this afternoon,” remarked the lieutenant of artillery. “So it does,” the infantry captain assented. He glanced casually at the sky. When his eyes had lowered to the green-shadowed landscape before him, he said fretfully: “I wish those fellows out yonder would quit pelting at us. They’ve been […]

The dark uniforms of the men were so coated with dust from the incessant wrestling of the two armies that the regiment almost seemed a part of the clay bank which shielded them from the shells. On the top of the hill a battery was arguing in tremendous roars with some other guns, and to […]