/^ T -^ jr~^ i^ 
 Class -JL--^ ij<Do^/ 
 
 CoByrightlJ" /^-^ 
 
 COFiRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
LOVE SONGS 
 

 ^^^^ 
 
 THE MACMTLLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
To E. 
 
 I have remembered beauty in the night, 
 Against black silences I waked to see 
 A shower of sunlight over Italy 
 
 And green Ravello dreaming on her height; 
 
 I have remembered music in the dark, 
 
 The clean swift brightness of a fugue of Bach's, 
 And running water singing on the rocks 
 
 When once in English ivoods I heard a lark. 
 
 But all remembered beauty is no more 
 
 Than a vague prelude to the thought of you — 
 You are the rarest soid I ever knew, 
 Lover of beauty, knightliest and best; 
 My thoughts seek you as waves that seek the shore, 
 And when I think of you, I am at rest. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 Beside new poems, this book contains lyrics 
 taken from "Rivers to the Sea" (The Macmillan 
 Company), "Helen of Troy and Other Poems" 
 (G. P. Putnam's Sons), and one or two from an 
 earlier volume. Thanks are due to the editors of 
 Harper's, Century, Scribner's, Poetry and other 
 periodicals for their permission to include poems 
 hitherto unpublished in book form. 
 
 For permission to set any of these poems to 
 music, application should be made to the author 
 through the publishers. 
 
 [vii] 
 
CONTENTS 
 I 
 
 PAGS 
 
 Barter 3 
 
 Twilight 5 
 
 Night Song at Amalfi 6 
 
 The Look 7 
 
 A Winter Night 8 
 
 A Cry 9 
 
 Gifts 10 
 
 But Not to Me 11 
 
 Song at Capri 12 
 
 Child, Child "13 
 
 Love Me 14 
 
 Pierrot 15 
 
 Wild Asters 16 
 
 The Song for Colin 17 
 
 Four Winds 18 
 
 Debt . 19 
 
 Faults 20 
 
 Buried Love . . 21 
 
 The Fountain 22 
 
 I Shall Not Care 24 
 
 After Parting 25 
 
 A Prayer 26 
 
 fix! 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Spring Night 
 
 May Wind 
 
 Tides 
 
 After Love 
 
 New Love and Old 
 
 The Kiss 
 
 Swans 
 
 The River 
 
 November 
 
 Spring Rain 
 
 The Ghost 
 
 Summer Night, Riverside 
 
 Jewels .... 
 
 PAGB 
 
 ^27,. 
 29 
 30 
 31 
 32 
 33 
 34 
 35 
 36 
 37 
 39 
 41 
 43 
 
 II 
 
 Interlude: SONGS OUT OF SORROW . . 45 
 
 I. Spirit's House 47 
 
 II. Mastery 48 
 
 III. Lessons 49 
 
 IV. Wisdom 50 
 
 V. In a Burying Ground .... 51 
 
 VI. Wood Song 52 
 
 VII. Refuge , , 53 
 
 III 
 
 The Flight . , . . . . . . .57 
 
 Dew . .58 
 
 To-night 59 
 
 Ebb Tide . . . . * ± - • .60 
 
 fxl 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I Would Live in Your Love .... 61 
 
 Because 62 
 
 The Tree of Song 63 
 
 The Giver 64 
 
 April Song 65 
 
 The Wanderer 66 
 
 The Years 67 
 
 Enough 68 
 
 Come 69 
 
 Joy 70 
 
 Riches 71 
 
 Dusk in War Time 72 
 
 Peace 73 
 
 Moods 74 
 
 Houses of Dreams 75 
 
 Lights 76 
 
 "I Am Not Yours" 77 
 
 Doubt 78 
 
 The Wind 79 
 
 Morning 80 
 
 Other Men 81 
 
 Embers 82 
 
 Message 83 
 
 The Lamp . . 84 
 
 IV 
 
 A November Night 87 
 
 xi] 
 
LOYE SONGS 
 
 BARTER 
 
 Life has loveliness to sell, 
 
 All beautiful and splendid things, 
 
 Blue waves whitened on a cliff. 
 Soaring fire that sways and sings, 
 
 And children's faces looking up 
 
 Holding wonder like a cup. 
 
 Life has loveliness to sell. 
 Music like a curve of gold. 
 
 Scent of pine trees in the rain. 
 
 Eyes that love you, arms that hold, 
 
 And for your spirit's still delight. 
 
 Holy thoughts that star the night. 
 
 Spend all you have for loveliness. 
 Buy it and never count the cost; 
 [3] 
 
LOVE SONGS 
 
 For one white singing hour of peace 
 
 Count many a year of strife well lost, 
 And for a breath of ecstasy 
 Give all you have been, or could be. 
 
 [4] 
 
TWILIGHT 
 
 Dkeamily over the roofs 
 The cold spring rain is falling; 
 
 Out in the lonely tree 
 A bird is calling, calling. 
 
 Slowly over the earth 
 
 The wings of night are falling; 
 My heart like the bird in the tree 
 
 Is calling, calling, calling. 
 
 5] 
 
NIGHT SONG AT AMALFI 
 
 I ASKED the heaven of stars 
 What I should give my love — 
 
 It answered me with silence, 
 Silence above. 
 
 I asked the darkened sea 
 
 Down where the fishers go — 
 
 It answered me with silence, 
 Silence below. 
 
 Oh, I could give him weeping, 
 Or I could give him song — 
 
 But how can I give silence, 
 My whole life long? 
 
 [6] 
 
THE LOOK 
 
 Strephon kissed me in the spring, 
 
 Robin in the fall, 
 But Colin only looked at me 
 
 And never kissed at all. 
 
 Strephon's kiss was lost in jest, 
 
 Robin^s lost in play. 
 But the kiss in Colin's eyes 
 
 Haunts me night and day. 
 
 7] 
 
A WINTER NIGHT 
 
 My window-pane is starred with frost, 
 The world is bitter cold to-night, 
 
 The moon is cruel, and the wind 
 Is like a two-edged sword to smite. 
 
 God pity all the homeless ones. 
 The beggars pacing to and fro, 
 
 God pity all the poor to-night 
 Who walk the lamp-lit streets of snow. 
 
 My room is like a bit of June, 
 
 Warm and close-curtained fold on fold, 
 But somewhere, like a homeless child. 
 
 My heart is crying in the cold. 
 
 [8] 
 
A CRY 
 
 Oh, there are eyes that he can see, 
 And hands to make his hands rejoice, 
 
 But to my lover I must be 
 Only a voice. 
 
 Oh, there are breasts to bear his head, 
 And lips whereon his lips can lie. 
 
 But I must be till I am dead 
 Only a cry. 
 
 [91 
 
GIFTS 
 
 I GAVE my first love laughter, 
 I gave my second tears, 
 
 I gave my third love silence 
 Through all the years. 
 
 My first love gave me singing, 
 My second eyes to see, 
 
 But oh, it was my third love 
 Who gave my soul to me. 
 
 [10] 
 
BUT NOT TO ME 
 
 The April night is still and sweet 
 With flowers on every tree; 
 
 Peace comes to them on quiet feet, 
 But not to me. 
 
 My peace is hidden in his breast 
 
 Where I shall never be; 
 Love comes to-night to all the rest, 
 
 But not to me. 
 
 Ill] 
 
SONG AT CAPRI 
 
 When beauty grows too great to bear 
 How shall I ease me of its ache, 
 
 For beauty more than bitterness 
 Makes the heart break. 
 
 Now while I watch the dreaming sea 
 With isles like flowers against her breast, 
 
 Only one voice in all the world 
 Could give me rest. 
 
 [12] 
 
CHILD, CHILD 
 
 Child, child, love while you can 
 
 The voice and the eyes and the soul of a man; 
 
 Never fear though it break your heart — 
 
 Out of the wound new joy will start; 
 
 Only love proudly and gladly and well, 
 
 Though love be heaven or love be hell. 
 
 Child, child, love while you may, 
 For life is short as a happy day; 
 Never fear the thing you feel — 
 Only by love is life made real; 
 Love, for the deadly sins are seven. 
 Only through love will you enter heaven. 
 
 13 
 
LOVE ME 
 
 Brown-thrush singing all day long 
 
 In the leaves above me, 
 Take my love this April song, 
 
 "Love me, love me, love me!" 
 
 When he harkens what you say, 
 Bid him, lest he miss me, 
 
 Leave his work or leave his play, 
 And kiss me, kiss me, kiss me I 
 
 14 
 
PIERROT 
 
 Pierrot stands in the garden 
 Beneath a waning moon, 
 
 And on his lute he fashions 
 A fragile silver tune. 
 
 Pierrot plays in the garden, 
 He thinks he plays for me, 
 
 But I am quite forgotten 
 Under the cherry tree. 
 
 Pierrot plays in the garden, 
 And all the roses know 
 
 That Pierrot loves his music, - 
 But I love Pierrot. 
 
 15] 
 
. WILD ASTERS 
 
 In the spring I asked the daisies 
 
 If his words were true, 
 And the clever, clear-eyed daisies 
 
 Always knew. 
 
 Now the fields are brown and barren, 
 
 Bitter autumn blows. 
 And of all the stupid asters 
 
 Not one knows. 
 
 [16] 
 
THE SONG FOR COLIN 
 
 I SANG a song at dusking time 
 Beneath the evening star, 
 
 And Terence left his latest rhyme 
 To answer from afar. 
 
 Pierrot laid down his lute to weep, 
 And sighed, "She sings for me." 
 
 But Colin slept a careless sleep 
 Beneath an apple tree. 
 
 17 
 
FOUR WINDS 
 
 "Four winds blowing through the sky, 
 You have seen poor maidens die, 
 Tell me then what I shall do 
 That my lover may be true." 
 Said the wind from out the south, 
 "Lay no kiss upon his mouth," 
 And the wind from out the west, 
 "Wound the heart within his breast," 
 And the wind from out the east, 
 "Send him empty from the feast," 
 And the wind from out the north, 
 "In the tempest thrust him forth; 
 When thou art more cruel than he. 
 Then will Love be kind to thee." 
 
 18 
 
DEBT 
 
 What do I owe to you 
 
 Who loved me deep and long? 
 You never gave my spirit wings 
 
 Or gave my heart a song. 
 
 But oh, to him I loved, 
 Who loved me not at all, 
 
 I owe the open gate 
 That led through heaven's wall. 
 
 [191 
 
FAULTS 
 
 They came to tell your faults to me, 
 They named them over one by one; 
 I laughed aloud when they were done, 
 I knew them all so well before, — 
 Oh, they were blind, too blind to see 
 Your faults had made me love you more. 
 
 [20] 
 
BURIED LOVE 
 
 I HAVE come to bury Love 
 
 Beneath a tree, 
 In the forest tall and black 
 
 Where none can see. 
 
 I shall put no flowers at his head, 
 
 Nor stone at his feet. 
 For the mouth I loved so much 
 
 Was bittersweet. 
 
 I shall go no more to his grave, 
 For the woods are cold. 
 
 I shall gather as much of joy 
 As my hands can hold. 
 
 I shall stay all day in the sun 
 Where the wide winds blow, — 
 
 But oh, I shall cry at night 
 When none will know. 
 1211 
 
THE FOUNTAIN 
 
 All through the deep blue night 
 
 The fountain sang alone; 
 It sang to the drowsy heart 
 
 Of the satyr carved in stone. 
 
 The fountain sang and sang, 
 But the satyr never stirred — 
 
 Only the great white moon 
 In the empty heaven heard. 
 
 The fountain sang and sang 
 
 While on the marble rim 
 The milk-white peacocks slept, 
 
 And their dreams were strange and dim. 
 
 Bright dew was on the grass, 
 
 And on the ilex, dew, 
 The dreamy milk-white birds 
 
 Were all a-glisten, too. 
 [221 
 
THE FOUNTAIN 
 
 The fountain sang and sang 
 The things one cannot tell; 
 
 The dreaming peacocks stirred 
 And the gleaming dew-drops fell. 
 
 23 
 
I SHALL NOT CARE 
 
 When I am dead and over me bright April 
 Shakes out her rain-drenched hair, 
 
 Though you should lean above me broken- 
 hearted, 
 I shall not care. 
 
 I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful 
 When rain bends down the bough, 
 
 And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted 
 Than you are now. 
 
 24] 
 
AFTER PARTING 
 Oh, I have sown my love so wide 
 
 That he will find it everywhere; 
 It will awake him in the night, 
 
 It will enfold him in the air. 
 
 I set my shadow in his sight 
 And I have winged it with desire, 
 
 That it may be a cloud by day, 
 And in the night a shaft of fire. 
 
 25 
 
A PRAYER 
 
 Until I lose my soul and lie 
 Blind to the beauty of the earth, 
 
 Deaf though shouting wind goes by, 
 Dumb in a storm of mirth; 
 
 Until my heart is quenched at length 
 And I have left the land of men, 
 
 Oh, let me love with all my strength 
 Careless if I am loved again. 
 
 26] 
 
SPRING NIGHT 
 
 The park is filled with night and fog, 
 The veils are drawn about the world, 
 
 The drowsy lights along the paths 
 Are dim and pearled. 
 
 Gold and gleaming the empty streets, 
 Gold and gleaming the misty lake, 
 
 The mirrored lights like sunken swords. 
 Glimmer and shake. 
 
 Oh, is it not enough to be 
 Here with this beauty over me? 
 My throat should ache with praise, and I 
 Should kneel in joy beneath the sky. 
 O, beauty, are you not enough? 
 Why am I crying after love. 
 With youth, a singing voice, and eyes 
 To take earth's wonder with surprise? 
 [27] 
 
SPRING NIGHT 
 
 Why have I put off my pride, 
 Why am I unsatisfied, — 
 I, for whom the pensive night 
 Binds her cloudy hair with light, 
 I, for whom all beauty burns 
 Like incense in a million urns? 
 O beauty, are you not enough? 
 Why am I crying after love? 
 
 28 
 
MAY WIND 
 
 I SAID, "I have shut my heart 
 As one shuts an open door, 
 
 That Love may starve therein 
 And trouble me no more." 
 
 But over the roofs there came 
 The wet new wind of May, 
 
 And a tune blew up from the curb 
 Where the street-pianos play. 
 
 My room was white with the sun 
 And Love cried out in me, 
 
 "I am strong, I will break your heart 
 Unless you set me free." 
 
 129] 
 
TIDES 
 
 Love in my heart was a fresh tide flowing 
 Where the starlike sea gulls soar ; 
 
 The sun was keen and the foam was blowing 
 High on the rocky shore. 
 
 But now in the dusk the tide is turning, 
 
 Lower the sea gulls soar, 
 And the waves that rose in resistless yearning 
 
 Are broken forevermore. 
 
 30 
 
AFTER LOVE 
 
 There is no magic any more, 
 We meet as other people do, 
 
 You work no miracle for me 
 Nor I for you. 
 
 You were the wind and I the sea — 
 There is no splendor anj^ more, 
 
 I have grown listless as the pool 
 Beside the shore. 
 
 But though the pool is safe from storm 
 And from the tide has found surcease. 
 
 It grows more bitter than the sea, 
 For all its peace. 
 
 [31] 
 
NEW LOVE AND OLD 
 
 In my heart the old love 
 Struggled with the new; 
 
 It was ghostly waking 
 All night through. 
 
 Dear things, kind things, 
 That my old love said. 
 
 Ranged themselves reproachfully 
 Round my bed. 
 
 But I could not heed them, 
 
 For I seemed to see 
 The eyes of my new love 
 
 Fixed on me. 
 
 Old love, old love. 
 
 How can I be true? 
 Shall I be faithless to myself 
 
 Or to you? 
 
 [321 
 
THE KISS 
 
 I HOPED that he would love me, 
 And he has kissed my mouth, 
 
 But I am like a stricken bird 
 That cannot reach the south. 
 
 For though I know he loves me, 
 To-night my heart is sad; 
 
 His kiss was not so wonderful 
 As all the dreams I had. 
 
 [33] 
 
SWANS 
 
 Night is over the park, and a few brave stars 
 Look on the lights that link it with chains of 
 gold, 
 The lake bears up their reflection in broken bars 
 That seem too heavy for tremulous water to 
 hold. 
 
 We watch the swans that sleep in a shadowy place, 
 And now and again one wakes and uplifts its 
 head; 
 
 How still you are — your gaze is on my face — 
 We watch the swans and never a word is said. 
 
 34 
 
THE RIVER 
 
 I CAME from the sunny valleys 
 And sought for the open sea, 
 
 For I thought in its gray expanses 
 My peace would come to me. 
 
 I came at last to the ocean 
 And found it wild^ and black, 
 
 And I cried to the windless valleys, 
 "Be kind and take me back!" 
 
 But the thirsty tide ran inland, 
 And the salt waves drank of me. 
 
 And I who was fresh as the rainfall 
 Am bitter as the sea. 
 
 35 
 
NOVEMBER 
 
 The world is tired, the year is old, 
 The fading leaves are glad to die, 
 
 The wind goes shivering with cold 
 Where the brown reeds are dry. 
 
 Our love is dying like the grass. 
 
 And we who kissed grow coldly kind. 
 
 Half glad to see our old love pass 
 Like leaves along the wind. 
 
 36] 
 
SPRING RAIN 
 
 I THOUGHT I had forgotten, 
 
 But it all came back again 
 To-night with the first spring thunder 
 
 In a rush of rain. 
 
 I remembered a darkened doorway 
 Where we stood while the storm swept by, 
 
 Thunder gripping the earth 
 
 And lightning scrawled on the sky. 
 
 The passing motor busses swayed, 
 For the street was a river of rain, 
 
 Lashed into little golden waves 
 In the lamp light's stain. 
 
 With the wild spring rain and thunder 
 
 My heart was wild and gay; 
 Your eyes said more to me that night 
 
 Than your lips would ever say. . . . 
 [37] 
 
SPRING RAIN 
 
 I thought I had forgotten, 
 But it all came back again 
 
 To-night with the first spring thunder 
 In a rush of rain. 
 
 38 
 
THE GHOST 
 
 I WENT back to the clanging city, 
 
 I went back where my old loves stayed. 
 
 But my heart was full of my new love's glory, 
 My eyes were laughing and unafraid. 
 
 I met one who had loved me madly 
 And told his love for all to hear — - 
 
 But we talked of a thousand things together, 
 The past was buried too deep to fear. 
 
 I met the other, whose love was given 
 With never a kiss and scarcely a word — 
 
 Oh, it was then the terror took me 
 
 Of words unuttered that breathed and stirred. 
 
 Oh, love that lives its life with laughter 
 Or love that lives its life with tears 
 
 Can die — but love that is never spoken 
 
 Goes like a ghost throi]<ih the winding years. . . 
 [391 
 
THE GHOST 
 
 I went back to the clanging city, 
 
 I went back where my old loves stayed. 
 
 My heart was full of my new love's glory, 
 But my eyes were suddenly afraid. 
 
 40] 
 
SUMMER NIGHT, RIVERSIDE 
 
 In the wild, soft summer darkness 
 
 How many and many a night we two together 
 
 Sat in the park and watched the Hudson 
 
 Wearing her lights like golden spangles 
 
 Glinting on black satin. 
 
 The rail along the curving pathway 
 
 Was lov7 in a happy place to let us cross, 
 
 And down the hill a tree that dripped with bloom 
 
 Sheltered us, 
 
 While your kisses and the flowers, 
 
 Falling, falling. 
 
 Tangled my hair. . . . 
 
 The frail white stars moved slowly over the sky. 
 
 And now, far off 
 
 In the fragrant darkness 
 
 [41 
 
SUMMER NIGHT, RIVERSIDE 
 
 The tree is tremulous again with bloom, 
 For June comes back. 
 
 To-night what girl 
 
 Dreamily before her mirror shakes from her hair 
 
 This yearns blossoms, clinging in its coils? 
 
 [42] 
 
JEWELS 
 
 If I should see your eyes again, 
 
 I know how far their look would go — 
 
 Back to a morning in the park 
 
 With sapphire shadows on the snow. 
 
 Or back to oak trees in the spring 
 When you unloosed my hair and kissed 
 
 The head that lay against your knees 
 In the leaf shadow's amethyst. 
 
 And still another shining place 
 W^e would remember — how the dun 
 
 Wild mountain held us on its crest 
 One diamond morning white with sun. 
 
 But I will turn my eyes from you 
 
 As women turn to put away 
 The jewels they have worn at night 
 
 And cannot wear in sober day. 
 [431 
 
II 
 
 INTERLUDE : 
 SONGS OUT OF SORROW 
 
I 
 
 SPIRIT'S HOUSE 
 
 From naked stones of agony 
 
 I will build a house for me; 
 
 As a mason all alone 
 
 I will raise it, stone by stone, 
 
 And every stone where I have bled 
 
 Will show a sign of dusky red. 
 
 I have not gone the way in vain. 
 
 For I have good of all my pain; 
 
 My spirit's quiet house will be 
 
 Built of naked stones I trod 
 
 On roads where I lost sight of God. 
 
 [4; 
 
II 
 
 MASTERY 
 
 I WOULD not have a god come in 
 To shield me suddenly from sin, 
 And set my house of life to rights; 
 Nor angels with bright burning wings 
 Ordering my earthly thoughts and things; 
 Rather my own frail guttering lights 
 Wind blown and nearly beaten out; 
 Rather the terror of the nights 
 And long, sick groping after doubt; 
 Rather be lost than let my soul 
 Slip vaguely from my own control — 
 Of my own spirit let me be 
 In sole though feeble mastery. 
 
 [48] 
 
Ill 
 
 LESSONS 
 
 Unless I learn to ask no help 
 
 From any other soul but mine, 
 To seek no strength in waving reeds 
 
 Nor shade beneath a straggling pine; 
 Unless I learn to look at Grief 
 
 Unshrinking from her tear-blind eyes, 
 And take from Pleasure fearlessly 
 
 Whatever gifts will make me wise — 
 Unless I learn these things on earth, 
 Why was I ever given birth? 
 
 49 
 
IV 
 
 WISDOM 
 
 When I have ceased to break my wings 
 Against the faultiness of things, 
 And learned that compromises wait 
 Behind each hardly opened gate, 
 When I can look Life in the eyes, 
 Grown calm and very coldly wise. 
 Life will have given me the Truth, 
 And taken in exchange — my youth. 
 
 50 
 
V 
 
 IN A BURYING GROUND 
 
 This is the spot where I will lie 
 When life has had enough of me, 
 
 These are the grasses that will blow 
 Above me like a living sea. 
 
 These gay old lilies will not shrink 
 To draw their life from death of mine, 
 
 And I will give my body's fire 
 To make blue flowers on this vine. 
 
 "O Soul," I said, "have you no tears? 
 
 Was not the body dear to you?" 
 I heard my soul say carelessly, 
 
 "The myrtle flowers will grow more blue.' 
 
 [51] 
 
VI 
 WOOD SONG 
 
 I HEARD a wood thrush in the dusk 
 Twirl three notes and make a star - 
 
 My heart that walked with bitterness 
 Came back from very far. 
 
 Three shining notes were all he had. 
 And yet .they made a starry call — 
 
 I caught life back against my breast 
 And kissed it, scars and all. 
 
 [52] 
 
VII 
 REFUGE 
 
 From my spirit's gray defeat, 
 From my pulse's flagging beat, 
 From my hopes that turned to sand 
 Sifting through my close-clenched hand, 
 From my own fault's slavery. 
 If I can sing, I still am free. 
 
 For with my singing I can make 
 A refuge for my spirit's sake, 
 A house of shining words, to be 
 My fragile immortality. 
 
 53 
 
m 
 
THE FLIGHT 
 
 Look back with longing eyes and know that I 
 
 will follow, 
 Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow. 
 Let our flight be far in sun or blowing rain — 
 But what if I heard my first low calling me again? 
 
 Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the 
 
 foam, 
 Take me far away to the hills that hide your home ; 
 Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the 
 
 door — 
 But what if I heard my first love calling me once more? 
 
 [57] 
 
DEW 
 
 As dew leaves the cobweb lightly 
 
 Threaded with stars, 
 Scattering jewels on the fence 
 
 And the pasture bars ; 
 As dawn leaves the dry grass bright 
 
 And the tangled weeds 
 Bearing a rainbow gem 
 
 On each of their seeds; 
 So has your love, my lover, 
 
 Fresh as the dawn, 
 Made me a shining road 
 
 To travel on. 
 Set every common sight 
 
 Of tree or stone 
 Delicately alight 
 
 For me alone. 
 
 [58] 
 
TO-NIGHT 
 
 The moon is a curving flower of gold, 
 
 The sky is still and blue; 
 The moon was made for the sky to hold, 
 
 And I for you. 
 
 The moon is a flower without a stem. 
 
 The sky is luminous; 
 Eternity was made for them, 
 
 To-night for us. 
 
 [59] 
 
EBB TIDE 
 
 When the long day goes by 
 And I do not see your face, 
 
 The old wild, restless sorrow 
 Steals from its hiding place. 
 
 My day is barren and broken. 
 
 Bereft of light and song, 
 A sea beach bleak and windy 
 
 That moans the whole day long. 
 
 To the empty beach at ebb tide, 
 Bare with its rocks and scars, 
 
 Come back like the sea with singing. 
 And light of a million stars. 
 
 60 
 
I WOULD LIVE IN YOUR LOVE 
 
 I WOULD live in your love as the sea-grasses live 
 
 in the sea, 
 Borne up by each wave as it passes, drawn doAvn by 
 
 each wave that recedes; 
 I would empty my soul of the dreams that have 
 
 gathered in me, 
 I would beat with your heart as it beats, I would 
 
 follow your soul as it leads. 
 
 61 
 
BECAUSE 
 
 Oh, because you never tried 
 To bow my will or break my pride, 
 And nothing of the cave-man made 
 You want to keep me half afraid, 
 Nor ever with a conquering air 
 You thought to draw me unaware — 
 Take me, for I love you more 
 Than I ever loved before. 
 
 And since the body's maidenhood 
 Alone were neither rare nor good 
 Unless with it I gave to you 
 A spirit still untrammeled, too, 
 Take my dreams and take my mind 
 That were masterless as wind; 
 And "Master!" I shall say to you 
 Since you never asked me to. 
 
 [62] 
 
THE TREE OF SONG 
 
 I SANG my songs for the rest, 
 
 For you I am still; 
 The tree of my song is bare 
 
 On its shining hill. 
 
 For you came like a lordly wind, 
 And the leaves were whirled 
 
 Far as forgotten things 
 Past the rim of the world. 
 
 The tree of my song stands bare 
 
 Against the blue — 
 I gave my songs to the rest, 
 
 Myself to you. 
 
 63 
 
THE GIVER 
 
 You bound strong sandals on my feet, 
 You gave me bread and wine, 
 
 And sent me under sun and stars. 
 For all the world was mine. 
 
 Oh, take the sandals off my feet. 
 You know not what you do; 
 
 For all my world is in your arms, 
 My sun and stars are you. 
 
 64 
 
APRIL SONG 
 
 Willow, in your April gown 
 Delicate and gleaming, 
 
 Do you mind in years gone by 
 All my dreaming? 
 
 Spring was like a call to me 
 That I could not answer, 
 
 I was chained to loneliness, 
 I, the dancer. 
 
 Willow, twinkling in the sun. 
 Still your leaves and hear me, 
 
 I can answer spring at last. 
 Love is near me ! 
 
 [65] 
 
THE WANDERER 
 
 I SAW the sunset-colored sands, 
 The Nile like flowing fire between, 
 Where Rameses stares forth serene, 
 
 And Amnion's heavy temple stands. 
 
 I saw the rocks where long ago, 
 Above the sea that cries and breaks, 
 Swift Perseus with Medusa's snakes 
 
 Set free the maiden white like snow. 
 
 And many skies have covered me. 
 And many winds have blown me forth. 
 And I have loved the green, bright north. 
 
 And I have loved the cold, sweet sea. 
 
 But what to me are north and south. 
 And what the lure of many lands. 
 Since you have leaned to catch my hands 
 
 And lay a kiss upon my mouth. 
 [661 
 
THE YEARS 
 
 To-night I close my eyes and see 
 
 A strange procession passing me — 
 
 The years before I saw your face 
 
 Go by me with a wistful grace; 
 
 They pass, the sensitive, shy years, 
 
 As one who strives to dance, half blind with tears. 
 
 The years went by and never knew 
 
 That each one brought me nearer you; 
 
 Their path was narrow and apart 
 
 And yet it led me to your heart — 
 
 Oh, sensitive, shy years, oh, lonely years, 
 
 That strove to sing with voices drowned in tears. 
 
 [67] 
 
ENOUGH 
 
 It is enough for me by day 
 
 To walk the same bright earth with him; 
 Enough that over us by night 
 
 The same great roof of stars is dim. 
 
 I do not hope to bind the wind 
 
 Or set a fetter on the sea — 
 It is enough to feel his love 
 
 Blow by like music over me. 
 
 [68] 
 
COME 
 
 Come, when the pale moon Hke a petal 
 Floats in the pearly dusk of spring, 
 
 Come with arms outstretched to take me, 
 Come with lips pursed up to cling. 
 
 Come, for life is a frail moth flying, 
 
 Caught in the web of the years that pass, 
 
 And soon we two, so warm and eager, 
 Will be as the gray stones in the grass. 
 
 69 
 
JOY 
 
 I AM wild, I will sing to the trees, 
 I will sing to the stars in the sky, 
 
 I love, I am loved, he is mine. 
 Now at last I can die ! 
 
 I am sandaled with wind and with flame, 
 I have heart-fire and singing to give, 
 
 I can tread on the grass or the stars. 
 Now at last I can Hve! 
 
 [70 
 
RICHES 
 
 I HAVE no riches but my thoughts, 
 Yet these are wealth enough for me; 
 
 My thoughts of you are golden coins 
 Stamped in the mint of memory; 
 
 And I must spend them all in song, 
 For thoughts, as well as gold, must be 
 
 Left on the hither side of death 
 To gain their immortality. 
 
 71 
 
DUSK IN WAR TIME 
 
 A HALF-HOUR more and you will lean 
 To gather me close in the old sweet way — 
 
 But oh, to the woman over the sea 
 Who will come at the close of day? 
 
 A half-hour more and I will hear 
 
 The key in the latch and the strong, quick tread 
 But oh, the woman over the sea 
 
 Waiting at dusk for one who is dead! 
 
 72 
 
PEACE 
 
 Peace flows into me 
 
 As the tide to the pool by the shore; 
 
 It is mine forevermore, 
 It will not ebb like the sea. 
 
 I am the pool of blue 
 That worships the vivid sky; 
 My hopes were heaven-high, 
 
 They are all fulfilled in you. 
 
 I am the pool of gold 
 When sunset burns and dies — 
 You are my deepening skies; 
 
 Give me your stars to hold. 
 
 73] 
 
MOODS 
 
 I AM the still rain falling, 
 Too tired for singing mirth — 
 
 Oh, be the green fields calling. 
 Oh, be for me the earth! 
 
 I am the brown bird pining 
 To leave the nest and fly — 
 
 Oh, be the fresh cloud shining. 
 Oh, be for me the sky! 
 
 74] 
 
HOUSES OF DREAMS 
 
 You took my empty dreams 
 
 And filled them every one 
 With tenderness and nobleness, 
 
 April and the sun. 
 
 The old empty dreams 
 
 Where my thoughts would throng 
 Are far too full of happiness 
 
 To even hold a song. 
 
 Oh, the empty dreams were dim 
 And the empty dreams were wide, 
 
 They were sweet and shadowy houses 
 Where my thoughts could hide. 
 
 But you took my dreams away 
 And you made them all come true — 
 
 My thoughts have no place now to play, 
 And nothing now to do. 
 [751 
 
LIGHTS 
 
 When we come home at night and close the door, 
 Standing together in the shadowy room, 
 Safe in our own love and the gentle gloom, 
 
 Glad of familiar wall and chair and floor. 
 
 Glad to leave far below the clanging city; 
 Looking far downward to the glaring street 
 Gaudy with light, yet tired with many feet. 
 
 In both of us wells up a wordless pity; 
 
 Men have tried hard to put away the dark; 
 A million lighted windows brilliantly 
 
 Inlay with squares of gold the winter night. 
 But to us standing here there comes the stark 
 Sense of the lives behind each yellow light. 
 And not one wholly joyous, proud, or free. 
 
 [76] 
 
"I AM NOT YOURS'* 
 
 I AM not yours, not lost in you, 
 Not lost, although I long to be 
 
 Lost as a candle lit at noon, 
 Lost as a snowflake in the sea. 
 
 You love me, and I find you still 
 A spirit beautiful and bright. 
 
 Yet I am I, who long to be 
 Lost as a light is lost in light. 
 
 Oh plunge me deep in love — put out 
 My senses, leave me deaf and blind, 
 
 Swept by the tempest of your love, 
 A taper in a rushing wind. 
 
 [77 
 
DOUBT 
 
 My soul lives in my body*s house, 
 
 And you have both the house and her — 
 But sometimes she is less your own 
 
 Than a wild, gay adventurer; 
 A restless and an eager wraith, 
 
 How can I tell what she will do — 
 Oh, I am sure of my body's faith. 
 
 But what if my soul broke faith with you ? 
 
 78 
 
THE WIND 
 
 A WIND is blowing over my soul, 
 
 I hear it cry the whole night through 
 
 Is there no peace for me on earth 
 Except with you? 
 
 Alas, the wind has made me wise, 
 Over my naked soul it blew, — 
 
 There is no peace for me on earth 
 Even with you. 
 
 [79] 
 
MORNING 
 
 I WENT out on an April morning 
 All alone, for my heart was high, 
 
 I was a child of the shining meadow, 
 I was a sister of the sky. 
 
 There in the windy flood of morning 
 Longing lifted its weight from me, 
 
 Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering. 
 Swept as a sea-bird out to sea. 
 
 [80] 
 
OTHER MEN 
 
 When I talk with other men 
 
 I always think of you — 
 Your words are keener than their words, 
 
 And they are gentler, too. 
 
 When I look at other men, 
 
 I wish your face were there, 
 With its gray eyes and dark skin 
 
 And tossed black hair. 
 
 When I think of other men. 
 
 Dreaming alone by day, 
 The thought of you like a strong wind 
 
 Blows the dreams away. 
 
 81 
 
EMBERS 
 
 I SAID, "My youth is gone 
 
 Like a fire beaten out by the rain, 
 That will never sway and sing 
 
 Or play with the wind again/* 
 
 I said, "It is no great sorrow 
 That quenched my youth in me. 
 
 But only little sorrows 
 Beating ceaselessly." 
 
 I thought my youth was gone, 
 
 But you returned — 
 Like a flame at the call of the wind 
 
 It leaped and burned; 
 
 Threw off its ashen cloak. 
 
 And gowned anew 
 Gave itself like a bride 
 
 Once more to you. 
 [821 
 
MESSAGE 
 
 I HEARD a cry in the night, 
 A thousand miles it came, 
 
 Sharp as a flash of light. 
 My name, my name! 
 
 It was your voice I heard, 
 You waked and loved me so 
 
 I send you back this word, 
 I know, I know I 
 
 [83] 
 
THE LAMP 
 
 If I can bear your love like a lamp before me, 
 When I go down the long steep Road of Darkness 
 I shall not fear the everlasting shadows. 
 Nor cry in terror. 
 
 If I can find out God, then I shall find Him, 
 If none can find Him, then I shall sleep soundly, 
 Knowing how well on earth your love sufficed me, 
 A lamp in darkness. 
 
 [84] 
 
IV 
 
A NOVEMBER NIGHT 
 
 There! See the line of lights, 
 A chain of stars down either side the street — 
 Why cant you lift the chain and give it to me, 
 A necklace for my throat f Fd tivist it round 
 And you coidd play with it. You smile at me 
 As though I were a little dreamy child 
 Behind ivhose eyes the fairies lixe. . . . And see, 
 The 'people on the street look up at us 
 All envions. We are a king and queen, 
 Our royal carriage is a motor bus. 
 We watch our subjects with a haughty joy. . . . 
 How still you are! Have you been hard at ivork 
 And are you tired to-night f It is so long 
 Since I have seen you — four whole days, I think. 
 My heart is crowded full of foolish thoughts 
 Like early floivers in an April meadow. 
 And I must give them to you, all of them, 
 [87] 
 
A NOVEMBER NIGHT 
 
 Before they fade. The people I haw met, 
 
 The play I saiv, the trivial, shifting things 
 
 Thai loom too big or shrink too little, shadows 
 
 That hurry, gesturing along a imll. 
 
 Haunting or gay — and yet they all grow real 
 
 And take their proper size here in my heart 
 
 When you have seen them. . . . There's the Plaza 
 
 now, 
 A lake of light! To-night it almost seems 
 That all the lights are gathered in your eyes, 
 Draivn somehow toward you. See the open park 
 Lying below us with a million lamps 
 Scattered in wise disorder like the stars. 
 JVe look doivn on them as God must look down 
 On constellations floating under Him 
 Tangled in clouds. . . . Come, then, and let us walk 
 Since we have reached the park. It is our garden, 
 All black and blossomless this winter night. 
 But we bring April with us, you and I ; 
 We set the whole world on the trail of spring, 
 [88] 
 
A NOVEMBER NIGHT 
 
 / think that every path we ever took 
 
 Has marked our footprints in mysterious fire. 
 
 Delicate gold that only fairies see. 
 
 When they icake up at dawn in hollow tree-trunks 
 
 And come out on the drowsy park, they look 
 
 Along the empty paths and say, "Oh, here 
 
 They went, and here, and here, and here! Come, see, 
 
 Here is their bench, take hands and let us dance 
 
 About it in a windy ring and make 
 
 A circle round it only they can cross 
 
 When they come back again ! " . . . Look at the 
 
 lake — 
 Do you remember how we watched the swans 
 That night in late October ivhile they slept? 
 Sivans must have stately dreams, I think. But noio 
 The lake bears only thin reflected lights 
 That shake a little. Hoiv I long to take 
 One from the cold black icater — new-made gold 
 To give you in your hand! And see, and see, 
 There is a star, deep in the lake, a star! 
 r89l 
 
A NOVEMBER NIGHT 
 
 Oh, dimmer than a yearl — if you stoop down 
 Your hand could almost reach it up to me. . . . 
 
 There was a new frail yellow moon to-night — 
 / wish you could have had it for a cup 
 With stars like dew to fill it to the brim. . . . 
 
 How cold it is! Even the lights are cold; 
 They have put shawls of fog around them, see ! 
 What if the air should grow so dimly white 
 That we ivould lose our way along the paths 
 Made neic by walls of moving mist receding 
 The more toe folloto. . . . What a silver night ! 
 That was our bench the time you said to me 
 The long new poem — but how different now, 
 Hoiv eerie with the curtain of the fog 
 Making it strange to all the friendly trees! 
 There is no wind, and yet great curving scrolls 
 Carve themselves, ever changing, in the mist. 
 Walk on a little, let me stand here watching 
 To see you, too, grown strange to me and far. . . 
 [90] 
 
A NOVEMBER NIGHT 
 
 / used to wonder how the park ivould be 
 If one night we could have it all alone — 
 No lovers with close arm-encircled waists 
 To whisper and break in upon our dreams. 
 And notv we have it! Every wish comes true! 
 We are alone now in a fleecy world; 
 Even the stars have gone. We two alone! 
 
 Printed in the United States of America. 
 
 [91] 
 
T 
 
 HE following pages contain advertisements of 
 books by the same author or on kindred subjects 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 Rivers to the Sea 
 
 $1-25 
 
 Leather, $i.6o 
 
 " There is hardly another American woman-poet whose poetry 
 is generally known and loved like that of Sara Teasdale. ' Riv- 
 ers to the Sea,' her latest volume of lyrics, possesses the delicacy 
 of imagery, the inward illumination, the high vision that charac- 
 terize the poetry that will endure the test of time." — Review of 
 Reviews. 
 
 " ' Rivers to the Sea ' is a book of sheer delight. . . . Her 
 touch turns everything to song." — EDWARD J. WHEELER, in 
 Current Opinion. 
 
 " Sara Teasdale's lyrics have the clarity, the precision, the 
 grace and fragrance of flowers." — HARRIET Monroe, in 
 Poetry. 
 
 " Sara Teasdale has a genius for the song, for the perfect lyric, 
 in which the words seem to have fallen into place without art or 
 effort." — Louis Untermeyer, in T/ie Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 " ' Rivers to the Sea ' is the best book of pure lyrics that has 
 appeared in English since A. E. Housman's 'A Shropshire 
 Lad.' " — William Marion Reedy, in T/ie Mirror. 
 
 " ' Rivers to the Sea ' is the most beautiful book of pure lyrics 
 that has come to my hand in years." — Los Angeles Graphic. 
 
 " Sara Teasdale sings about love better than any other con- 
 temporary American poet."— The Boston Transcript. 
 
 " ' Rivers to the Sea ' is the most charming volume of poetry 
 that has appeared on either side of the Atlantic in a score of 
 years." — St. Louis Reptiblic. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avoime New Yor^ 
 
The New Poetry An Anthology 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 HARRIET MONROE 
 
 Author of " You and I " 
 AND 
 
 ALICE CORBIN HENDERSON 
 
 EDITORS OF "poetry" 
 
 $1-75 
 
 " Not the least worthy feature of the collection is found in Miss 
 Monroe's fine preface." — Chicago Herald. 
 
 " Vital and significant . . . and charged with the secret of new 
 life." — Louisville Post. 
 
 " Distinctly a book worth having . . . filled with beauty and 
 excellence." — New York Times. 
 
 " Of real importance for all those who are interested in poetry 
 and its development . . . altogether it is a volume of the greatest 
 worth and interest." — New York Herald. 
 
 "A valuable anthology . . . gives a definite idea of some of 
 the achievements and tendencies of current verse." — New York 
 Times. 
 
 LEWIS V. LEDOUX 
 
 Yzdra : A Tragedy in Three Acts 
 
 $1.25 
 
 " The reader is struck by the fascinating possibilities of Yzdra 
 as acting drama. It would make a striking and beautiful play for 
 the stage, and we can well imagine that even the greatest actress 
 would be glad to assume the role of the ill-fated Princess. The 
 dialogue is, from the point of view of the stage, certain in its ef- 
 fective quality." — New York Times. 
 
 " There are both grace and strength in this drama and it also 
 possesses the movement and spirit for presentation upon the 
 stage. Some of the figures used are striking and beautiful, quite 
 free from excess, and sometimes almost austere in their restraint. 
 The characters are clearly individualized and a just balance is 
 preserved in the action." — Outlook. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 
 
NEW MACMILLAN POETRY 
 
 Edwin Arlington Robinson's New Book 
 
 Merl 
 
 en in 
 
 "A man with something to say that has value and beauty. . . . 
 His thought is deep and his ideas are high and stimulating." — Boston 
 Transcript. Mr. Robinson's new book is a long narrative poem dealing, 
 in all the bright freshness of his distinctive art, with the old Arthurian 
 legend of Merlin and Vivien. This modern treatment of an ancient 
 theme is new evidence of Mr. Robinson's notable power as a poet and 
 a delineator of the emotions of the truly living. $1-25 
 
 Ralph Hodgson's New Book 
 
 Poems 
 
 Recently awarded the Edward de Polignac prize for poetry, Ralph 
 Hodgson is already well known in this country. Those who have read, 
 in the little yellow chap books of the "Flying Fame," "The Song of 
 Honour," "Eve," "The Bull" and others will welcome their publication 
 in this American edition. "'Eve,' . . . The most fascinating poem 
 of our time." — The Nation. $ .75 
 
 John Curtis Underwood's New Book 
 
 War Flames 
 
 Mr. Underwood's is one of those searching imaginations which go to 
 the heart of things for the fabric of their visions. Out of the flames 
 and tumult and the furious rush of war he has built gripping pictures 
 which hint of what is back of all wars, all hopes of peace. %i-35 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 
 
The Cycle of Spring : A Play 
 
 Cloth ^ 1 2 mo, $1.25 
 Leather, $1.75 
 
 This, the latest and richest of the author's plays, was recently 
 performed in the courtyard of his Calcutta home by the masters 
 and boys of Shantiniketan. The success was immense : and 
 naturally, for the spirit of the play is the spirit of universal youth, 
 filled with laughter and lyric fervour, jest and pathos and resur- 
 gence: immortal youth whose every death is a rebirth, every 
 winter an enfolded spring. 
 
 " All the joy, the buoyancy, the resilience, the indomitable and 
 irrepressible hopefulness of Youth are compacted in the lines of 
 the play. The keynote is sounded, with subtle symbolism, in the 
 Prelude, in which the King ranks above all matters of State or of 
 Humanity the circumstances that two gray hairs had made their 
 appearance behind the ear that morning. . . . Dramatic power, 
 philosophy, and lyric charm are brilliantly blended in a work of 
 art that has the freshness and the promise of its theme." — New 
 York Tributie. 
 
 "A more beautiful play than 'The Cycle of Spring,' by Sir 
 Rabindranath Tagore, it would be hard to find in all literature. 
 It embodies the spirit of youth, and one can almost hear in it the 
 laughter of the eternally young. . . . Not only the glamour of the 
 Orient but the breath of Undying Youth is in this work of Tagore, 
 a genius so peculiar to India, so utterly inartificial, so completely 
 of imagination all compact that his colossal power begotten of 
 Fairyland and the World of Visions makes us poor Occidentals 
 look very small indeed." — Rochester Post Express, 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York