Of dream.

48

The sun's golden spear,
The violet cloud writhing in pain;
Golden the tint of the sky,
The tall trees wave their green-gold hair.

Music of this hour!
The zephyr's perfume-laden argosy
Drifts with the song of lutes
Down the sunset-stream that falls from heaven's bower.

Another flow of light,
Tinkling like the intangible bells of paradise,
Flows out of my heart
Into the mysterious love-perfumed ocean of night.

49

TRUCE

A field of battle--this sky,
The sun, the hero bleeding to death;
The shadows and lights hurl their
Hosts of clouds ceaselessly:
No peace?
Warfare all?
Nay, lo! she cometh--
The Spirit of Truce,
The Evening Star!

50

A PARALLEL

Time has passed, since
Shadows trembled to watch
Twilight sweep the earth
For the phantoms to trip and mince.

A dark breeze the forest-heart stirs;
Yet merry the face of the sky--
Twinkling in joy
Its innumerable eyes, the stars.

Hushed the music within;
Pleasure's silver laugh, dead;
Thought lost in reverie--
Reverie receding into nothing.

The taper of dreams flickers
Out, leaving the soul in dusk
By the altar of love,
Flower-laden as the night with stars.

51

"Nothing endures," you said;
"None can die," quoth love;
"In the firmament of loving
No stars set, no meteors fall."

Yet, nothing endures, nothing,
Naught but dust;
Naught but regret and vain desire
The twin monuments of life,

Reared by time, by wrecking
All that we seek and find.
Its relentless waves of years
Break even the impregnable wall of memory
That thought builds
On the embankment of hope.

Pass all away, even we who loved,
Dreamt as none dreamt before--
Borne by the tide of life--
But, lo! from our defeated destiny
Rise our seeds reared by time
Consecrated to love and living!

52

DISAPPOINTMENT

They think thee bitter:
Thou art not made o' laughter
Nor love's smile
Can thy vision beguile:
Like a black-fiery comet
Suddenly, sinisterly, thou comest;
Making thy fateful journey,
Littering the floor of destiny
With wreckages of life,
Of love, of heart--
Of all visitors thou art the surest;
Halting nowhere long, endlessly