him weep,
We breathe an answering message in our flowers
To him who lies asleep.

To him whom soon the deep, cold earth must cover,
To him whose dying breath
Left to our hearts a message bridging over
The dark abyss of Death.

Hagar

To have known Heaven and then to walk in Hell!
Is it not hell to know his face no more,
Supplanted, spurned and thrust without his door.
Seeing another with my loved lord dwell
Sheltered within the tents of wedded love
While I must roam the desert of Despair?
Ah, God above me harken to my prayer!
Send down thy mercy on me as a dove
Folding its white wings on my tortured breast.
Let me not see the anguish of my child
With hunger torn, with thirst's consuming wild,
Strike us, oh God, into Thy deep dark Rest!
Lo! I have sinned. I kneel and kiss the rod,
But she, the wife, who cast us forth to die ...
I curse her not! Judge Thou between us, God,
Which in Thy sight is guiltier, she or I?

Water-Lilies

They float ethereal, unearthly white
Upon the bosom of the darkling mere,
Raying the dusk with slumbrous silver light--
Eidolons of lost moons erst mirrored there.

Salvias

Wooing the wind's wild caresses,
Courting the sun's fierce flame--
Wantons in cardinal dresses
Flaunting their scarlet shame.

Yellow Jessamine

Like little yellow stars that, fallen down,
Hang pendulous, enmeshed among the boughs,
Mild golden radiances they gem the crown
Fair Summer sets upon her beauteous brows.

Sunflowers

They bloom in lowly places--
Unmeet for fairer beds--
Like swarthy Ethiop faces
With yellow-turbaned heads.

The Rose

All Orient odors, spikenard, balm and myrrh,
Perfumes of Araby and farthest Ind--
Sweet incense from the chaliced heart of her
She pours upon the feet of every wind.

Circe

I.

Where fair AEaeia smiles across the sea
To olive-crowned Italia, th' enchantress dwells--
A woman set about with dreams and spells,
Weird incantations, charms and mystery.
Most strangely pale and strangely fair is she--
Yet deadlier than the hemlock draught her smile,
Darker than Stygian glooms her subtle guile....
Drawn by her deep eyes' spell, across the sea
The Argive galleys wing, till beached they lie
Upon the fatal strand. The Greeks beguile
The hasting hours with revelry and wine
Within her halls.... Eftsoon strange sorcery
The Circe weaves. They who were men erewhile
Now grove