She dreams of Love upon the temple stair,—
About her feet the lithe green lizards play
In all the drowsy, warm, Sicilian air.

The winds have loosed the fillet from her hair,
Sea winds, salt-lipped, that laugh and seem to say,
“She dreams of Love, upon the temple stair.

“Then let us twine soft fingers, here and there,
Amid the gleaming threads that drift and stray
In all the drowsy, warm, Sicilian air,

“And let us weave of them a subtle snare
To cast about and bind her, as to-day
She dreams of Love, upon the temple stair.”

Here in this room where first we met,
And where we said farewell with tears,
Here, where you swore “Though you forget,
My love shall deeper grow with years,”

Here, where the pictures on the wall,
The very rugs upon the floor,
The smallest objects you recall,—
I am awaiting you once more.

The books that we together read,—
From off their shelves they beckon me.
All here seems living! What is dead?
What is the ghost I fear to see?

Unchanged am I. Did you despise
My love as “small”?—it fills my heart!

Would God that it were holiday!
Hey derry down, down derry,
That with my Love I might go play;
With woe my heart is weary;
My whole delight is in her sight,
Would God I had her company,
Her company,
Hey derry down, down adown.

My Love is fine, my Love is fair,
Hey derry down, down derry,
No maid with her may well compare,
In Kent or Canterbury;
From me my Love shall never move,
Would God I had her company,
Her company,
Hey derry down, down adown.

To see her laugh, to see her smile,
Hey derry down, down derry,

My heart was made for laughter,
My eyes were made for smiles,
My life was made for living
Upon the Blessed Isles.

My heart is dead with sorrow,
My eyes are red with rue;
And I'd rather weep for you, my love,
Than smile for any but you.

Grieve not, dear Love, although we often part;
—But know that Nature gently doth us sever,
Thereby to train us up with tender art,
—To brook the day when we must part for ever.

For Nature, doubting we should be surprised
—By that sad day, whose dread doth chiefly fear us,
Doth keep us daily schooled and exercised,
—Lest that the fright thereof should overbear us.

Grieve not, dear Love, although we often part;
—But know that Nature gently doth us sever,
Thereby to train us up with tender art,
—To brook the day when we must part for ever.

Why lovely Boy, why fly'st thou mee
That languish in these flames for Thee?
I' me black, tis true: why so is Night,
And Love does in dark Shades delight.
The whole World, doe but close thine Ey,
Will seeme to thee as black as I,
Or op't, & view what a black shade
Is by thine owne faire Body made
That followes thee where ere thou goe;
(O who allow'd would not doe so,)
Let mee for ever dwell so nigh
And thou shalt need no other shade then I.

A youth was walking in the early hours
Of life, along a garden-alley fair,
When on a sudden, lo! a rose was there,—
Unseen by him before among the flowers
That wove a many-coloured mist of bowers,
And redolent of sweetness made the air.
He came the next day, but would hardly dare
To hope the night's attendant band of showers
Had spared the rose; but lo! the rose was red,
And fragrant, far more fragrant than before,
And fuller petals had unfolded more,
And round about it brighter bloom was shed:
The rose the lover fondly feared was dead,

To him who waits all things, they say,
Will come upon a certain day:
The love that Love's own sloth belates,
The satisfaction of the hates,
For which one yearns, tho' does not pray.

Success will bring the wreath of bay
She filched from Fame, as sleeping lay
The sullen and unwilling Fates,
To him who waits.

It may be true! Ah, yes, it may!
But hearts grow feeble, Faith grows gray;
Her greed for sadness Sorrow sates;
Hope trembles, doubts and hesitates,
While Fortune loiters on her way
To him who waits.

There is no blessedness in life
Apart from blessed Love;
This sanctifies the dreary strife
Which all who live must prove;
It lifts the burden from the soul,
And puts the staff into the hand;
The gloomy clouds behind us roll,
And all before is dawn and fairy-land.

And this we felt when side by side
Beneath those garden trees
We sat, when Spring was in her pride
Of blossoms, birds and bees.
A richer life we needed not,
A time less bright we did not fear,
Than hallowed then that blessed spot,
And made the past and future disappear.

What do the roses say, love, my love,
Glad as the morning and fair as the South?
Bend to me fondly the rose-red leaves
Of your rose-red mouth!

What do the roses say, sweet, my sweet,
Light as the zephyrs and bright as the dawn?
Summer is beckoning, youth is fleet,
Let love love on!

What do the roses say, dear, my dear,
Pale and dewy and blood-red all?
Stay me with kisses, the night is anear,
And the rose leaves fall!

What do the roses say, heart, my heart,
Proud, impatient, and tossed with doubt?