Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/212

 MARTINIQUE IDYL

, the winds long to lure you to their home,

To tempt you on beneath the northern arch!

There, in the swift, bright summer, you and I

May loiter where the elms' deep shadows lie;

There, by our household fire, bid Yule-tide come,

And winter's cold, and every gust of March.

Stay, O stay with me here, and chasten

Your heart still longing to wander more!

Ever the restless winds are winging,

But the white-plumed egrets, skyward-springing,

Over our blue sea hover, and hasten

To light anew on their own dear shore.

The lips grow tired of honey, the cloyed ear

Of music, and of light the eyelids tire.

I weary of the sky's eternal balm,

The ceaseless droop and rustle of the palm;

Only your whisper, love, constrains me here

From that brave clime I would you might desire.

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