• I hid my love when young till I
    Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly;
    I hid my love to my despite
    Till I could not bear to look at light:
    I dare not gaze upon her face
    But left her memory in each place;
    Where eer I saw a wild flower lie
    I kissed and bade my love good bye.
    I met her in the greenest dells
    Where dewdrops pearl the wood blue bells
    ...

  • I sleep with thee, and wake with thee,
    And yet thou art not there;
    I fill my arms with thoughts of thee,
    And press the common air.
    Thy eyes are gazing upon mine
    When thou art out of sight;
    My lips are always touching thine
    At morning, noon, and night.
    I think and speak of other things
    To keep my mind at rest,
    But still to thee my...

  • What of her glass without her? The blank grey
    There where the pool is blind of the moon’s face.
    Her dress without her? The tossed empty space
    Of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away.
    Her paths without her? Day’s appointed sway
    Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place
    Without her? Tears, ah me! for love’s good grace,
    And cold forgetfulness...

  • Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,--
    ...The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
    ...Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
    'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
    All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
    ...Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
    ...Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
    'Tis visible...

  • At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart:
    And as the last slow sudden drops are shed
    From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled,
    So singly flagged the pulses of each heart.
    Their bosoms sundered, with the opening start
    Of married flowers to either side outspread
    From the knit stem; yet still their mouths, burnt red,
    Fawned on...

  • Look off, dear Love, across the sallow sands,
    And mark yon meeting of the sun and sea,
    How long they kiss in sight of all the lands.
    Ah! longer, longer, we.
    Now in the sea's red vintage melts the sun,
    As Egypt's pearl dissolved in rosy wine,
    And Cleopatra night drinks all. 'Tis done,
    Love, lay thine hand in mine.
    Come forth, sweet stars, and...

  • Hey, rose, just born
    Twin to a thorn;
    Was't so with you, O Love and Scorn?

    Sweet eyes that smiled,
    Now wet and wild:
    O Eye and Tear- mother and child.

    Well: Love and Pain
    Be kinfolks twain;
    Yet would, Oh would I could Love again.

  • Two separate divided silences,
    Which, brought together, would find loving voice;
    Two glances which together would rejoice
    In love, now lost like stars beyond dark trees;
    Two hands apart whose touch alone gives ease;
    Two bosoms which, heart-shrined with mutual flame,
    Would, meeting in one clasp, be made the same;
    Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of...

  • I dwelt alone
    In a world of moan,
    And my soul was a stagnant tide,
    Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride—
    Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride.

    Ah, less—less bright
    The stars of the night
    Than the eyes of the radiant girl!
    That the vapor can make
    With the moon-tints of purple and pearl,
    Can vie with...

  • Music, when soft voices die,
    Vibrates in the memory—
    Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
    Live within the sense they quicken.

    Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
    Are heap’d for the beloved’s bed;
    And so thy thoughts when thou are gone,
    Love itself shall slumber on.