Classic Poem

She beckoned me over the misty rise
Her radiant feet were bare,
The grey-blue dawn was in her eyes
Stars glimmered in her hair:
She murmured the spell of Paradise
— And Paradise was there:


" O follow me Love, wherever I will,
And lose thy soul with me
Deep in the shadowy scrub, where still
Broods grey-winged mystery,
And strange dim flowers are dreaming till
I waken them for thee. "

We fled where the forest was silent and sere,
And shadows filled the shade,
And sudden pinions swooped a-near,
And phantom flowers swayed,
And her song was a cry, and her beauty was fear,
— But her white feet never stayed.


" O follow me Love, where the mountains tower
And the eagle, circling high,
Sails over the dazzling clouds that lower
Above Earth's tarnished sky,
And the glaciers guard the azure flower
Of Immortality. "

I climbed in search of the deathless bloom
Through chasms black as night,
And staggered on in the blinding gloom
Of everlasting light,
Where I stumbled over a nameless tomb
— And still I followed her flight.


" O follow me down where the lighthouse glows
" Good-bye" to the dying sun,
And the silent river seaward flows
Whose race is nearly run,
And sinless quietude shall close
Life's battle lost — and won. "

I followed her, dreaming of dreamless sleep,
The sleep that never shall be
For, whenever the wings of the Southerly sweep
Through the dream of the slumbering sea,
Her white feet glimmer along the deep,
And I hear her calling me.


" O follow me Love wherever I will
And lose thy soul with me,
Deep in the shadow of death, where still
Broods grey-winged mystery,
And strange dim stars are dreaming, till
I waken them for thee. "