Three Triolets
I
Love’s footsteps shall not fail nor faint,
He will not leave our hearth again:
So safely lulled his murmuring plaint,
Love’s footsteps shall not fail nor faint;
All clasped and bound in fond constraint,
And circled with a shining chain,
Love’s footsteps shall not fail nor faint,
He will not leave our hearth again.
II
Your rose-red bonds are all in vain,
If bound Love weep for weariness:
His faded eyes are drowned in rain.
Your rose-red bonds are all in vain,
He murmurs low a dull refrain,
And turns his lips from our caress-
Your rose-red bonds are all in vain
If bound Love weep for weariness!
III
That grey, last day we said goodbye
Makes winter weather in my heart;
Dull cloud wreaths veiled our summer sky
That grey, last day we said goodbye
And loosed faint love; I wonder why
(For then, in truth, ’twas well to part)
That grey, last day we said goodbye
Makes wintry weather in my heart.
Graham R. Tomson.