Page:Poems and lyrics of the joy of earth.djvu/114

Rh 'When she was a tiny,' one aged woman quavers,
 * Plucks at my heart and leads me by the ear.

Faults she had once as she learnt to run and tumbled:
 * Faults of feature some see, beauty not complete.

Yet, good gossips, beauty that makes holy
 * Earth and air, may have faults from head to feet.

Hither she comes; she comes to me; she lingers,
 * Deepens her brown eyebrows, while in new surprise

High rise the lashes in wonder of a stranger;
 * Yet am I the light and living of her eyes.

Something friends have told her fills her heart to brimming,
 * Nets her in her blushes, and wounds her, and tames.—

Sure of her haven, O like a dove alighting,
 * Arms up, she dropped: our souls were in our names.

Soon will she lie like a white-frost sunrise.
 * Yellow oats and brown wheat, barley pale as rye,