Legends and Lyrics-1 [29]
into Love's hot furnace
When it fiercest glows.
With Pain's sharpest point transfix it,
And then carve in letters fair,
Tender dreams and quaint devices,
Fancies sweet and rare.
Set within it Hope's blue sapphire,
Many-changing opal fears,
Blood-red ruby-stones of daring,
Mixed with pearly tears.
And when you have wrought and laboured
Till the gift is all complete,
You may humbly lay your offering
At the Lady's feet.
Should her mood perchance be gracious -
With disdainful smiling pride,
She will place it with the trinkets
Glittering at her side.
VERSE: A TRYST WITH DEATH
I am footsore and very weary,
But I travel to meet a Friend:
The way is long and dreary,
But I know that it soon must end.
He is travelling fast like the whirlwind,
And though I creep slowly on,
We are drawing nearer, nearer,
And the journey is almost done.
Through the heat of many summers,
Through many a springtime rain,
Through long autumns and weary winters,
I have hoped to meet him, in vain.
I know that he will not fail me,
So I count every hour chime,
Every throb of my own heart's beating,
That tells of the flight of Time.
On the day of my birth he plighted
His kingly word to me:-
I have seen him in dreams so often,
That I know what his smile must be.
I have toiled through the sunny woodland,
Through fields that basked in the light;
And through the lone paths in the forest
I crept in the dead of night.
I will not fear at his coming,
Although I must meet him alone;
He will look in my eyes so gently,
And take my hand in his own.
Like a dream all my toil will vanish,
When I lay my head on his breast -
But the journey is very weary,
And he only can give me rest!
VERSE: FIDELIS
You have taken back the promise
That you spoke so long ago;
Taken back the heart you gave me -
I must even let it go.
Where Love once has breathed, Pride dieth:
So I struggled, but in vain,
First to keep the links together,
Then to piece the broken chain.
But it might not be--so freely
All your friendship I restore,
And the heart that I had taken
As my own for evermore.
No shade of reproach shall touch you,
Dread no more a claim from me -
But I will not have you fancy
That I count myself as free.
I am bound by the old promise;
What can break that golden chain?
Not even the words that you have spoken,
Or the sharpness of my pain:
Do you think, because you fail me
And draw back your hand to-day,
That from out the heart I gave you
My strong love can fade away?
It will live. No eyes may see it;
In my soul it will lie deep,
Hidden from all; but I shall feel it
Often stirring in its sleep.
So remember, that the friendship
Which you now think poor and vain,
Will endure in hope and patience,
Till you ask for it again.
Perhaps in some long twilight hour,
Like those we have known of old,
When past shadows gather round you,
And your present friends grow cold,
You may stretch your hands out towards me, -
Ah! you will--I know not when -
I shall nurse my love and keep it
Faithfully, for you, till then.
VERSE: A SHADOW
What lack the valleys and mountains
That once were green and gay?
What lack the babbling fountains?
Their voice is sad to-day.
Only the sound of a voice,
Tender and sweet and low,
That made the earth rejoice,
A year ago!
What lack the tender flowers?
A shadow is on the sun:
What lack the merry hours,
That I long that they were done?
Only two smiling eyes,
That told of joy and mirth:
They are shining in the skies,
I mourn on earth!
What lacks my heart, that makes it
So weary and full of pain,
That trembling Hope forsakes it,
Never to come again?
Only another heart,
Tender and all mine own,
In the still grave it lies;
I weep alone!
VERSE: THE SAILOR BOY
My Life you ask of? why, you know
Full soon my little Life is told;
It has had no great joy or woe,
For I am only twelve years old.
Ere long I hope I shall have been
On my first voyage, and wonders seen.
Some princess I may help
When it fiercest glows.
With Pain's sharpest point transfix it,
And then carve in letters fair,
Tender dreams and quaint devices,
Fancies sweet and rare.
Set within it Hope's blue sapphire,
Many-changing opal fears,
Blood-red ruby-stones of daring,
Mixed with pearly tears.
And when you have wrought and laboured
Till the gift is all complete,
You may humbly lay your offering
At the Lady's feet.
Should her mood perchance be gracious -
With disdainful smiling pride,
She will place it with the trinkets
Glittering at her side.
VERSE: A TRYST WITH DEATH
I am footsore and very weary,
But I travel to meet a Friend:
The way is long and dreary,
But I know that it soon must end.
He is travelling fast like the whirlwind,
And though I creep slowly on,
We are drawing nearer, nearer,
And the journey is almost done.
Through the heat of many summers,
Through many a springtime rain,
Through long autumns and weary winters,
I have hoped to meet him, in vain.
I know that he will not fail me,
So I count every hour chime,
Every throb of my own heart's beating,
That tells of the flight of Time.
On the day of my birth he plighted
His kingly word to me:-
I have seen him in dreams so often,
That I know what his smile must be.
I have toiled through the sunny woodland,
Through fields that basked in the light;
And through the lone paths in the forest
I crept in the dead of night.
I will not fear at his coming,
Although I must meet him alone;
He will look in my eyes so gently,
And take my hand in his own.
Like a dream all my toil will vanish,
When I lay my head on his breast -
But the journey is very weary,
And he only can give me rest!
VERSE: FIDELIS
You have taken back the promise
That you spoke so long ago;
Taken back the heart you gave me -
I must even let it go.
Where Love once has breathed, Pride dieth:
So I struggled, but in vain,
First to keep the links together,
Then to piece the broken chain.
But it might not be--so freely
All your friendship I restore,
And the heart that I had taken
As my own for evermore.
No shade of reproach shall touch you,
Dread no more a claim from me -
But I will not have you fancy
That I count myself as free.
I am bound by the old promise;
What can break that golden chain?
Not even the words that you have spoken,
Or the sharpness of my pain:
Do you think, because you fail me
And draw back your hand to-day,
That from out the heart I gave you
My strong love can fade away?
It will live. No eyes may see it;
In my soul it will lie deep,
Hidden from all; but I shall feel it
Often stirring in its sleep.
So remember, that the friendship
Which you now think poor and vain,
Will endure in hope and patience,
Till you ask for it again.
Perhaps in some long twilight hour,
Like those we have known of old,
When past shadows gather round you,
And your present friends grow cold,
You may stretch your hands out towards me, -
Ah! you will--I know not when -
I shall nurse my love and keep it
Faithfully, for you, till then.
VERSE: A SHADOW
What lack the valleys and mountains
That once were green and gay?
What lack the babbling fountains?
Their voice is sad to-day.
Only the sound of a voice,
Tender and sweet and low,
That made the earth rejoice,
A year ago!
What lack the tender flowers?
A shadow is on the sun:
What lack the merry hours,
That I long that they were done?
Only two smiling eyes,
That told of joy and mirth:
They are shining in the skies,
I mourn on earth!
What lacks my heart, that makes it
So weary and full of pain,
That trembling Hope forsakes it,
Never to come again?
Only another heart,
Tender and all mine own,
In the still grave it lies;
I weep alone!
VERSE: THE SAILOR BOY
My Life you ask of? why, you know
Full soon my little Life is told;
It has had no great joy or woe,
For I am only twelve years old.
Ere long I hope I shall have been
On my first voyage, and wonders seen.
Some princess I may help