An empty laugh, I heard it on the road
Shivering the twilight with its lance of mirth;
And yet why empty? Knowing not its birth,
This much I know, that it goes up to God;
And if to God, from God it surely starts,
Who has within Himself the secret springs
Of all the lovely, causeless, unclaimed things,
And loves them in His very heart of hearts.
A girl of fifteen summers, pure and free,
Æolian, vocal to the lightest touch
Of fancy's winnowed breath — Ah, happy such
Whose life is music of the eternal sea!

If the year be at her Spring
I neither know nor care;
I have the bird-song of your speech,
The warm rain of your hair.
I question not if thrushes sing,
If roses load the air;
Beyond my heart I need not reach
When all is summer there.

I go not by the blue above,
By grasses green or sere;
Your silences, your sigh, your smile,
They mark my time o' year.
Its own brave wonder-world has love;
So fair it is, I fear
Sometimes 't will fade and go the while
I look upon you, dear.

Color in the lilacs,
And singing in the air;
Sweet is for the having,
Plenty and to spare.

Fuzzy are the bushes,
The fields are all a-smile;
Phyllis has a feeling
Life is well worth while;

Dian tests her dimples,
Griselda fetches sighs;
Amaryllis loosens
The lightnings in her eyes;

Roxy knots her ribbons,
Belinda binds her zone; —
Pluck your heart up, Colin!
Philander, hold your own!

Tell it up and down,
Love 's in town!

Love, indeed thy strength is mighty
Thus, alone, such strife to bear —
Three 'gainst one, and never ceasing —
Death, and Madness, and Despair!
'Tis not my own strength has saved me;
Health, and hope, and fortitude,
But for love, had long since failed me;
Heart and soul had sunk subdued.
Often, in my wild impatience,
I have lost my trust in Heaven,
And my soul has tossed and struggled,
Like a vessel tempest-driven;
But the voice of my beloved
In my ear has seemed to say —
" O, be patient if thou lov'st me!"

Since you bequeath your living face
And leave your throat for me to lean my eyes against,
As though the one I loved the uttermost had died
And willed me all her golden benefits,
Am I not happy then? ...

O largesse of the dead!
O vaulted throat!

Love embalms the moments,
Art stabs the years.
Love is the careful undertaker.
Art is the beloved assassin. . . .
Let me wear a black glove then —
With a knife in it!

The blue sky at its deepest was pricked by one keen star
That flashed a signal to the moon's uplifted scimitar,
And, like a quarrel in a dream, we spake with angry breath,
Till in that place of shadows our Love was done to death.

God hung the dawn with carmine and pillared it with gold
To welcome in our new Love, the angel of the old.
With lips still pale from requiems and litanies she came,
But home-sweet lights were in her eyes, — the same and not the same.

All that was mortal of her, the passion, the caprice,

You must have known her had you seen her face,
That moment turned away, as by she passed;
It must have told you, that confiding grace,
Of one could not but love you to the last.

And had you heard her voice you must have known
She little talked and softly all that day;
Something, perhaps, was on the June winds blown
To her could not but love you aye and aye.

You did not see her, and you did not hear;

With tears and kisses let me go.
Love not too deep
To kiss and weep,
That love have many, many;
But one love, oh,
It doth not so!
Pale lips it has and tearless eyes;
Broken, motionless it lies,
A flower amid death's mysteries,
A rose that dies.
With tears and kisses let me go;
Such love have many, many.
That other love my heart would know,
Or know not any.

Now tell me where is Arcady, is Arcady, is Arcady!
Now tell me where is Arcady, for that is where I'd be!
Is it beyond that golden line
That dazzles so these eyes of mine,
Far o'er the western sea?
Or is it over yonder height
Whereon the sun is gleaming bright,
And smiling happily?

I've sought it, O this many a year —
I've sought it far, I've sought it near,
In days of joy, in days of drear —
My well-beloved Arcady!

O Pilgrim fair to Arcady, to Arcady, to Arcady,
O Pilgrim unto Arcady, I'll point the way to thee!