Rondels of Childhood
I.-When Clarice Died
When Clarice died, and it was told to me,
I only covered up my face, and sighed
To lose the world and cease to breathe or see,
When Clarice died.
She was my playmate, sweet, and thoughtful-eyed,
With curls, gold curls, that fluttered wild and free;
My child companion and most tender guide.
When Clarice died I wandered wearily
Down the mute grove where she was wont to hide,
And cast myself beneath her favourite tree,
When Clarice died.
Bernard Weller.
Ii.-in a Fairy Boat
In a fairy boat on a fairy sea,
All amber and gold, I used to float
When never a wind rose stormily;
In a fairy boat.
And sweet and sad like a white dove’s note
Strange voices wakened my soul to glee,
And soft scents strayed from the violets’ throat.
In a fairy boat I shall no more be,
For gloom has fallen on creek and moat,
And my tired soul’s too heavy to flee
In a fairy boat.
Bernard Weller.