Winds of May, that dance on the sea

Winds of May, that dance on the sea,
Dancing a ring-around in glee
From furrow to furrow, while overhead
The foam flies up to be garlanded,
In silvery arches spanning the air,
Saw you my true love anywhere?
Welladay! Welladay!
For the winds of May!
— Love is unhappy when love is away!

O not more surely Love lies hid

O NOT more surely Love lies hid
— Among the clustered crimson roses,
Than he, whose name thy lips forbid
— Within thy secret heart reposes,
And not more surely Love will fly
— When Zephyrus hath ceased his fooling,
Than Anger in thy breast shall die,
— And thou confess the Monarch ruling.

To Time the Comforter


D UMB Comforter of woes!
The depth of whose deep comfort no man knows.
Whose consolations on the spirit steal
More gently than Love's gentlest word, and heal
Where Love falls back affrighted — only Life
Proves Thee the Comforter of mortal strife,
Of all that doth begin and end, that He
May speak in Thy dread silence endlessly.

Fair as a Dream!

What vision of the softly sleeping eyes
— Shone like the vision that they could not see?
Night, quivering with the children of the skies
Resplendently.

Fair is her dream. But ah! what fairest dream
— Is half so lovely as the dawn of day,
When the first golden gleam
Chases the rose and dove colour away?

Plant not the lily here!

Plant not the lily here!
No lily lies below.
The crimson rose to her was dear,
And the summer of the year,
Not the snow.

— Sing no lament!
She loved a merry song.
For her the birds were sent.
To her the humming of the golden bees,
And the murmur of trees

Thistledown

Find me, O my true love, find me,
— All the words by love made strongest,
— All the words that last the longest,
For an oath, an oath to bind me!

In the East the dawn grows brighter,
— On the wind I hear a whistle.
— Light the down upon the thistle.
Yea, true love, but I am lighter!

Closely I watched it, hour by hour

Closely I watched it, hour by hour,
— I almost thought I saw it grow,
When first the bud became a flower,
— — I do not know.

Closely I watched thee, O my dove,
— I almost thought I knew thee well.
When liking blossomed into love,
— — I cannot tell.

The Second Time

I CANNOT love you well, love,
— I cannot love again.
Your heaven is my hell, love,
— Your rapture is my pain.

I cannot say once more, love,
— The words that have been said.
My hand is on the door, love,
— My heart is with the dead.

When you would bid me stay, love,
— A voice is in mine ear,
That cries, " Away, away, love!
— How shouldst thou linger here? "

You warmed me at your fire, love,
— But I myself am cold.
God grant you your desire, love,
— And new love for the old.

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