Snowdrop

When , full of warm and eager love,
— — I clasp you in my fond embrace,
You gently push me back and say,
— " Take care, my dear, you'll spoil my lace. "

You kiss me just as you would kiss
— — Some woman friend you chanced to see;
You call me " dearest. " — All love's forms
— — Are yours, not its reality.

Oh, Annie! cry, and storm, and rave!
— — Do anything with passion in it!
Hate me an hour, and then turn round
— — And love me truly, just one minute.

The Two Loves

When curfew-bells begin,
And the log-fire hisses,
I covered Jeannie in
From head to foot with kisses.

There, in the glow
And flicker of the ingle,
I gave her for to know
How a man loves single:

I gave her for to know,
When the heart needs mating,
How hard a road to go
Was the long lone waiting.

Her face was all a mist,
Her dear eyes tear-laden,
To find herself so kissed,
And man so love a maiden.

Ah! but she did love!
With kind lips so quiet,
While my heart above

A Note of Humility

When all our hopes are sown on stony ground,
And we have yielded up the thought of gain,
Long after our last songs have lost their sound,
We may come back, we may come back again.

When thorns have choked the last green thing we loved,
And we have said all that there is to say,
When love that moved us once leaves us unmoved,
Then men like us may come to have a day.

For it will be with us as with the bee,
The meager ant, the sea-gull and the loon;
We may come back to triumph mournfully

Enough

When all my words were said,
When all my songs were sung,
I thought to pass among
The unforgotten dead,

A Queen of ruth to reign
With her, who gathereth tears
From all the lands and years,
The Lesbian maid of pain;

That lovers, when they wove,
The double myrtle-wreath,
Should sigh with mingled breath
Beneath the wings of Love:

" How piteous were her wrongs,
Her words were falling dew,
All pleasant verse she knew,
But not the Song of songs."

Yet now, O Love, that you

A Mother's Love

What sacrifice so great!
No hour too early, or too late,
No isle too distant, no shore or strand,
She may not reach with earnest heart, and willing hand.

What love so strong!
It is her child, or right or wrong,
In crowded court of justice, if condemn'd,
Her love and tearful eyes doth still defend.

What love so pure!
Friendship oft is false, but one is sure,
That mother's love clings to us to the last,
Wherever in life our varied lot is cast.

The Silent Singer

MRS. D. M. JORDAN, APRIL 29, 1895

ALL sudden she hath ceased to sing,
Hushed in eternal slumbering,
And we make moan that she is dead. —
Nay; peace! be comforted.

Between her singing and her tears
She pauses, listening — and she hears
The Song we can not hear. — And thus
She mutely pities us.

Could she speak out, we doubt not she

What Happiness Can Equal Mine

1. What happiness can equal mine; I've found the object of my love;
2. I am my love's, and he is mine; In me he dwells, in him I live;
My Jesus dear, my King divine, Is come to me from heaven above.
What greater treasure could I find? And could ye, heavens, a greater give?
He chose my heart for his abode, He there becomes my daily bread,
O sacred banquet, heavenly feast! O everlasting source of grace,
There on me flows his healing blood, There, with his flesh my soul is fed.
Where God the good, and man the guest, Meet and unite in sweet embrace.

Of His Lady

What flower is my lady like?
You think the rose is my suppose;
But it doth not my fancy strike.
The gaudy rose in summer blows,
In winter it is cold and dead:
My lovely flower blooms most the hour
When days are dark, and summer fled.

My lady's like no mortal flower
That hath its birth upon this earth,
Though formed in nature's chosen hour:
Albeit indeed it had the seed
In garden bright of Paradise,
And endless bloom from thence hath come
To bless each other sense and eyes.

A Capstan Chantey

What did the captain say to the cook
When the ship went down the river?
“I've left my girl in Melbourne town,
Her hair was black and her eyes were brown;
And I'll love my girl for ever.”

Wey-ho! We'll love the girls forever!
What did the cook to the captain say
When the ship went down the river?
“I've left my gal in Melbourne too,
Her hair was gold and her eyes were blue;
And I'll love my gal for ever.”

Wey-ho! We'll love the gals for ever!
What did the crew at the capstan sing

Doubt

What can I give my dear
Who has given his heart to me,
That I may keep his love
Safe under lock and key?

Oh, I can give him a singing voice,
And a body white and fine;
But what if he asked for an old, old dream
That once in the past was mine?

What if he came to seek for love,
Where never love might win?
What if he knocked at my empty heart
And said, " Sweet, let me in! "

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