Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/410

SONGS AND BALLADS To hold our love in chains,

Nor coax, nor hire it.

Be all things in thyself,—

A sprite, a tricksy elf,

Forever changing,

So that thy latest mood

May ever bring new food

To Fancy ranging.

Forget what thou wast first,

And as I loved thee erst

In soul and feature,

I'll love thee out of mind

When each new morn shall find

Thee a new creature.

NOCTURNE

silent world is sleeping,

And spirits hover nigh,

With downward pinions keeping

Our love from mortal eye,

Nor any ear of Earth can hear

The heart-beat and the sigh.

Now no more the twilight bird

Showers his triple notes around;

In the dewy paths is heard

No rude footfall's sound.

In the stillness I await

Thy coming late,

In the dusk would lay my heart

Close to thine own, and say how dear thou art!

O life! O rarest hour!

When the dark world onward rolls, 380