Love Songs | Page 8

their immortality.
Dusk in War Time
A half-hour more and you will lean
To gather me close in the old
sweet way --
But oh, to the woman over the sea
Who will come at
the close of day?
A half-hour more and I will hear
The key in the latch and the strong,
quick tread --
But oh, the woman over the sea
Waiting at dusk for
one who is dead!
Peace
Peace flows into me
As the tide to the pool by the shore;
It is mine
forevermore,
It will not ebb like the sea.
I am the pool of blue
That worships the vivid sky;
My hopes were
heaven-high,
They are all fulfilled in you.
I am the pool of gold
When sunset burns and dies --
You are my
deepening skies;
Give me your stars to hold.
Moods
I am the still rain falling,
Too tired for singing mirth --
Oh, be the
green fields calling,
Oh, be for me the earth!
I am the brown bird pining
To leave the nest and fly --
Oh, be the
fresh cloud shining,
Oh, be for me the sky!
Houses of Dreams
You took my empty dreams
And filled them every one
With
tenderness and nobleness,
April and the sun.

The old empty dreams
Where my thoughts would throng
Are far
too full of happiness
To even hold a song.
Oh, the empty dreams were dim
And the empty dreams were wide,

They were sweet and shadowy houses
Where my thoughts could
hide.
But you took my dreams away
And you made them all come true --

My thoughts have no place now to play,
And nothing now to do.
Lights
When we come home at night and close the door,
Standing together
in the shadowy room,
Safe in our own love and the gentle gloom,

Glad of familiar wall and chair and floor,
Glad to leave far below the clanging city;
Looking far downward to
the glaring street
Gaudy with light, yet tired with many feet,
In both
of us wells up a wordless pity;
Men have tried hard to put away the dark;
A million lighted windows
brilliantly
Inlay with squares of gold the winter night,
But to us standing here
there comes the stark
Sense of the lives behind each yellow light,
And not one wholly
joyous, proud, or free.
"I Am Not Yours"
I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost
as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.
You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I
am I, who long to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out
My senses, leave me deaf and
blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.
Doubt
My soul lives in my body's house,
And you have both the house and
her --
But sometimes she is less your own
Than a wild, gay
adventurer;
A restless and an eager wraith,
How can I tell what she
will do --
Oh, I am sure of my body's faith,
But what if my soul
broke faith with you?
The Wind
A wind is blowing over my soul,
I hear it cry the whole night through
--
Is there no peace for me on earth
Except with you?
Alas, the wind has made me wise,
Over my naked soul it blew, --

There is no peace for me on earth
Even with you.
Morning
I went out on an April morning
All alone, for my heart was high,
I
was a child of the shining meadow,
I was a sister of the sky.
There in the windy flood of morning
Longing lifted its weight from
me,
Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering,
Swept as a sea-bird out
to sea.
Other Men
When I talk with other men
I always think of you --
Your words are
keener than their words,
And they are gentler, too.
When I look at other men,
I wish your face were there,
With its
gray eyes and dark skin
And tossed black hair.

When I think of other men,
Dreaming alone by day,
The thought of
you like a strong wind
Blows the dreams away.
Embers
I said, "My youth is gone
Like a fire beaten out by the rain,
That
will never sway and sing
Or play with the wind again."
I said, "It is no great sorrow
That quenched my youth in me,
But
only little sorrows
Beating ceaselessly."
I thought my youth was gone,
But you returned --
Like a flame at
the call of the wind
It leaped and burned;
Threw off its ashen cloak,
And gowned anew
Gave itself like a
bride
Once more to you.
Message
I heard a cry in the night,
A thousand miles it came,
Sharp as a
flash of light,
My name, my name!
It was your voice I heard,
You waked and loved me so --
I send you
back this word,
I know, I know!
The Lamp
If I can bear your love like a lamp before me,
When I go down the
long steep Road of Darkness,
I shall not fear the everlasting shadows,
Nor cry in terror.
If I can find out