Page:The Yellow Book - 13.djvu/133



By Olive Custance

IERROT Pierrot  at first they said you slept,
 * And then they told me you would never wake
 * I dared not think I watched the white day break,

The yellow lamps go out I have not wept.

But now I kiss your dear cold hands and weep;
 * Shaken with sobs I cower beside the bed
 * At last I realise that you are dead

Drawn suddenly into the arms of sleep

Love! you will never look at me again
 * With those rain-coloured, heavy-lidded eyes,
 * Closed now for ever Pierrot, was it wise

To love so madly since we loved in vain?

In vain! in vain! but Pierrot, it was sweet
 * To stem the stealthy hours with wine and song!
 * Though death stood up between us stern and strong,

And fate twined nets to trip our dancing feet

The Yellow Book—Vol. XIII.