Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/684

 668 JOHN J. PIATT. [1850-GO. scarce a pulse of sound ! Afar Flashes, upon a spire, a star, And in the East a dusky Hght : Vailed the ghost-moon steals through the night ! Unvailing slow, her face of blood Uplifting in the solitude ! The city sleeps : above, behold The moonrise kiss a cross of gold ! Golden in air that cross : at rest Below, the city's sleeping breast ; And on the cross, moon-brightened, see, Christ, dying, smiles down lovingly ! POSTSCRIPT. I SHALL not hear from her again : In all my blushing letters, long I stole the secret from my pen. And hid it in unwritten song. Her letters, sweet as roses pressed. Bloom from my dreaming heart to-day. Flushing I wrote, in sweet unrest : My rose forgot to climb for May. Long years : for her another's name — Another's lip — another's arm — (Ah, crawl into the ashes, flame !) Another heart — though mine was warm, My cricket, hush ! his mirth is stilled ; Dream-flames among dream-embers play; Another my lost heaven has filled : My rose forgot to climb for May. Ah, well — the Postscript steals at last Beneath shy letters, buried — dead : " I love " — in my regret are cast Low echoes, whispering words unsaid. Sweet flowers, remember her, apart ; Write your sweet postscript here to-day Upon her head-stone — in my heart ; My rose forgot to climb for May. TWO KINGS. Two Kings, in vanished ages, Swayed kingdoms far apart ; One's scepter was a bloody hand, And one's a loving heart. The harvest cradled plenty, Where reaped that bloody hand ; The widows wailed, the orphans moaned — War wedded a waste land. The harvest cradled plenty, That loving heart controlled ; The mother sang, the children played — Peace bound her sheaves of gold. The one prepared his tombstone. The people's marbled groans ; The pyramid above forgot, Below, the crumbling bones. Dust in the vanished ages. Dust lies that bloody hand ; That heart beats in the people still, And blossoms in the land. That loving King is reigning ; He made no man a slave : In the people's heart they laid him deep — His laws are on his grave !