Dedication
Love owes tribute unto Death,
Being but a flower of breath,
Ev’n as thy fair body is
Moment’s figure of the bliss
Dwelling in the mind of God
When He called thee from the sod,
Like a crocus up to start,
Gray-eyed with a golden heart,
Out of earth, and point our sight
To thy eternal home of light.
Here on earth is all we know:
To let our love as steadfast blow,
Open-hearted to the sun,
Folded down when our day’s done,
As thy flower that bids it be
Flower of thy charity.
’Tis not ours to boast or pray
Breath from us shall outlive clay;
’Tis not thine, thou Pitiful,
Set me task beyond my rule.
Yet as young men carve on trees
Lovely names, and find in these
Solace in the after time,
So to have hid thee in my rhyme
Shall be comfort when I take
The lonely road. Then, for my sake,
Keep thou this my graven sigh,
And, that I may not all die,
Open it, and hear it tell,
Here was one who loved thee well.
October 6, 1912.
Note
Three of the Poems here published have appeared in book form already, in the Volume called Songs and Meditations, long out of print.