Classic Poem

I saw the sunlight on a lake,
I heard a bird sing in his tree,
A rose I had no heart to break,
An April breeze were kind to me;
And when to them I held arms wide,
I found you, Eleanor, inside.

Held you, all dancing light and gold,
Dim fragrance, music—and I said,
“Here is a sunbeam I may hold
For all my fingers are of lead.
Here is the Spring dawn come to stay,
A bird that will not fly away.”

But no—wind-fingers caught your dress;
The leaves called and you had to go,
With all the treasured loveliness
Of things that men forget to know,
In earth's worn path, so glad, so new,
You thought that I might follow you!