Lip service have I done, alack! Two honest gentlemen are we, She bade me store for festal hours Years eighty-six have come and gone; The days that went have made you wise, And, on my soul, you're growing gray. I like to think, when Toper Time Some here shall say, They both were good, The wine we drank, the man we knew. PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE 153. A Little While I Fain Would A Linger Yet LITTLE while (my life is almost set!) 1830-1886 I fain would pause along the downward way, While, Sweet! our eyes with tender tears are wet: A little while I fain would linger yet, All for love's sake, for love that cannot tire; Though fervid youth be dead, with youth's desire, And hope has faded to a vague regret, A little while I fain would linger yet. A little while I fain would linger here: Behold! who knows what strange, mysterious bars 'Twixt souls that love may rise in other stars? Nor can love deem the face of death is fair: A little while I still would linger here. A little while I yearn to hold thee fast, Hand locked in hand, and loyal heart to heart; (O pitying Christ! those woeful words, "We part!") So ere the darkness fall, the light be past, A little while I fain would hold thee fast. A little while, when light and twilight meet, A little while I fain would linger here; 154. A Storm in the Distance SEE the cloud-born squadrons of the gale, Their lines of rain like glittering spears deprest, While all the affrighted land grows darkly pale In flashing change on earth's half-shielded breast. Sounds like the rush of trampling columns float From that fierce conflict; volleyed thunders peal, Blent with the maddened wind's wild bugle-note; The lightnings flash, the solid woodlands reel! Ha! many a foliaged guardian of the height, Led by the Prince of all the Powers of air! Vast boughs like shattered banners hurtling fly Still, still, the levelled lances of the rain At earth's half-shielded breast take glittering aim; All space is life with fury, racked with pain, Earth bathed in vapor, and heaven rent by flame! At last the cloud-battalions through long rifts He ate and drank the precious words, His spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, Nor that his frame was dust. He danced along the dingy days, And this bequest of wings Was but a book. What liberty 1830-1886 1 Copyright, 1890, by Little, Brown & Company 2 III 1 I found the phrase to every thought I ever had, but one; And that defies me, Did try to chalk the sun as a hand To races nurtured in the dark:- Can blaze be done in cochineal, IV 2 My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me, So huge, so hopeless to conceive, V 1 Just lost when I was saved! Just felt the world go by! Just girt me for the onset with eternity, When breath blew back, And on the other side I heard recede the disappointed tide; 1 Copyright, 1891, by Little, Brown & Company Copyright, 1896, by Little, Brown & Company |