Page:The songs that Quinte sang.djvu/52

48 They said to her, “Why are your songs so sad?
 * Such hidden pain and pathos in them lie,

Such mournful thoughts in sombre language clad,
 * They bring the tears unbidden to the eye.

If you would only sing in strains more glad
 * The world would laugh, and so forget to sigh.

“Life has its pain, but has its pleasures too!
 * A cheery smile is better than a tear;

Some hearts are false, we know, but some are true,
 * The world is sad, why make it still more drear?

We love Life’s roses better than Life’s rue,
 * Better than dirge of woe the song of cheer.”

And as they talked with her in cheerful strain
 * A shadow stole o’er her averted face,

But when she turned to meet their gaze again
 * Her smiling lips showed naught of sorrow’s trace,

Though in her eyes still lurked a shade of pain
 * Which naught might banish from its dwelling place.

The lark sings gaily in the morning sun
 * Uprising from its nest amid the wheat;

The nightingale’s sweet notes, when day is done,
 * Float gently from the woodland’s cool retreat

In soft and plaintive strains, yet is there one
 * Who hearing both, would deem the lark’s mark sweet?