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LIFE AND LOVE.

I.

FAST this Life of mine was dying,
Blind already and calm as death,
Snowflakes on her bosom lying
Scarcely heaving with her breath.

II.

Love came by, and having known her
In a dream of fabled lands,
Gently stooped, and laid upon her
Mystic chrism of holy hands;

III.

Drew his smile across her folded

Eyelids, as the swallow dips; Breathed as finely as the cold did, Through the locking of her lips.

IV.

So, when Life looked upward, being

Warmed and breathed on from above, What sight could she have for seeing,

Evermore... but only LOVE?

A DENIAL.

I.

WE have met late-it is too late to meet,

O friend, not more than friend!

Death's forecome shroud is tangled round my feet,
And if I step or stir, I touch the end.

In this last jeopardy

Can I approach thee, I, who cannot move?
How shall I answer thy request for love?
Look in my face and see.

II.

I love thee not, I dare not love thee! go

In silence; drop my hand.

If thou seek roses, seek them where they blow
In garden-alleys, not in desert-sand.

Can life and death agree,

That thou shouldst stoop thy song to my complaint? I cannot love thee. If the word is faint,

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III.

I might have loved thee in some former days.
Oh, then, my spirits had leapt

As now they sink, at hearing thy love-praise!
Before these faded cheeks were overwept,

Had this been asked of me,

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To love thee with my whole strong heart and head,I should have said still . . . yes, but smiled and said, 'Look in my face and see!'

IV.

But now.. God sees me, God, who took my heart
And drowned it in life's surge.

In all your wide warm earth I have no part-
A light song overcomes me like a dirge.

Could Love's great harmony

The saints keep step to when their bonds are loose, Not weigh me down? am I a wife to choose?

Look in my face and see—

V.

While I behold, as plain as one who dreams,
Some woman of full worth,

Whose voice, as cadenced as a silver stream's,
Shall prove the fountain-soul which sends it forth;
One younger, more thought-free

And fair and gay, than I, thou must forget,

With brighter eyes than these.. which are not wet.. Look in my face and see!

VI.

So farewell thou, whom I have known too late

To let thee come so near.

Be counted happy while men call thee great,
And one beloved woman feels thee dear!—

Not I!-that cannot be.

I am lost, I am changed,-I must go farther, where The change shall take me worse, and no one dare Look in my face and see.

VII.

Meantime I bless thee. By these thoughts of mine

I bless thee from all such!

I bless thy lamp to oil, thy cup to wine,
Thy hearth to joy, thy hand to an equal touch
Of loyal troth. For me,

I love thee not, I love thee not!-away!

Here's no more courage in my

'Look in my face and see.'

soul to say

PROOF AND DISPROOF.

I.

Dost thou love me, my Beloved?
Who shall answer yes or no?
What is proved or disproved
When my soul inquireth so,
Dost thou love me, my Beloved?

II.

I have seen thy heart to-day,
Never open to the crowd,
While to love me aye and aye

Was the vow as it was vowed
By thine eyes of steadfast grey.

III.

Now I sit alone, alone

And the hot tears break and burn.

Now, Beloved, thou art gone,

Doubt and terror have their turn.

Is it love that I have known?

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