I always fear,--if you but knew!--
From your dear hand some killing blow.

Weary am I of holly-tree
And shining box and waving grass

Upon the tame unending lea,--
And all and all but you, alas!

STREETS

Let's dance the jig!

Above all else I loved her eyes,
More clear than stars of cloudless skies,
And arch and mischievous and wise.

Let's dance the jig!

So skilfully would she proceed
To make a lover's bare heart bleed,
That it was beautiful indeed!

Let's dance the jig!

But keenlier have I relished
The kisses of her mouth so red
Since to my heart she has been dead.

Let's dance the jig!

The circumstances great and small,--
Words, moments... I recall, recall
It is my treasure among all.

Let's dance the jig!

Sagesse

WHAT SAYST THOU, TRAVELLER, OF ALL THOU SAW'ST AFAR?

What sayst thou, traveller, of all thou saw'st afar?
On every tree hangs boredom, ripening to its fall,
Didst gather it, thou smoking yon thy sad cigar,
Black, casting an incongruous shadow on the wall?

Thine eyes are just as dead as ever they have been,
Unchanged is thy grimace, thy dolefulness is one,
Thou mind'st one of the wan moon through the rigging seen,
The wrinkled sea beneath the golden morning sun,

The ancient graveyard with new gravestones every day,--
But, come, regale us with appropriate detail,
Those disillusions weeping at the fountains, say,
Those new disgusts, just like their brothers, littered stale,

Those women! Say the glare, the identical dismay
Of ugliness and evil, always, in all lands,
And say Love, too,--and Politics, moreover, say,
With ink-dishonored blood upon their shameless hands.

And then, above all else, neglect not to recite
Thy proper feats, thou dragging thy simplicity
Wherever people love, wherever people fight,
In such a sad and foolish kind, in verity!

Has that dull innocence been punished as it should?
What say'st thou? Man is hard,--but woman? And thy tears,
Who has been drinking? And into what ear so good
Dost pour thy woes for it to pour in other ears?

Ah, others! ah, thyself! Gulled with such curious ease,
That used to dream