A WILD wind blows from out the angry sky
And all the clouds are tossed like thistle-down
Above the groaning branches of the trees;
For on this steel-cold night the earth is stirred
To shake away its rottenness; the leaves
Are shed like secret unremembered sins
In the great scourge of the great love of God....

Ere I was learned in the ways of love
I looked for it in green and pleasant lands,
In apple orchards and the poppy fields,
And peered among the silences of woods,
And meditated the shy notes of birds
But found it not.

SWEET IS THE BIRTH OF LOVE

Sweet is the birth of love, and the awaking,
The bashful dream, the faltering desire,
The vision fair — of all fair things partaking —
The wonder, the communicable fire:
Sweet is the need to give and to obtain, —
And sweet love's pain!

Love was a judge, and he held a court
With the culprit in the box.
He had flung him into his jail, — Despair, —
Close under double locks.

The crier cried, and the court began.
The attorney rose and said,
" The prisoner at the bar, my lord,
We charge, as shall be read. "

And he read a long indictment through,
That charged contempt of love.
" He has spoken slightingly of you,

When in thy folding arms I lie,
My head upon thy faithful breast,
I doubt not immortality,
But know I am forever blest.

Time then exists no more for me,
Nor measure years the orbs above:
I'm living in eternity, —
The deathless bliss of deathless love.

I.

Cruel Amynta , can you see
A Heart thus torn which you betray'd?
Love of himself ne'er vanquish'd me,
But thro' your Eyes the Conquest made.

II.

In Ambush there the Traitor lay,
Where I was led by faithless Smiles:
No Wretches are so lost as they,
Whom much Security beguiles.

I HAVE no fear of thee,
That thou wilt swerve from me;
My feeling is so closely wound
About thy being, through, around,
I cannot fancy how
We two could part: canst thou?

Only in day-dreams do I dream of thee!
By day our Past moves ever by my side,
A mystic Presence of majestic mien,
In samite clad white as its stainless soul, —
And eyes like his who sought the Holy Grail.

By day, by day, O thou beloved and lost!
Under the hidden current of my life
The thought of thee runs ever, tingeing all
With its own color, even as the sky
Lends its own azure to the sleeping lake.

By day, by day, the soft airs breathe thy name;
The strong winds bear it on their mighty wings;

My grandam says to me:
" Judith, which would you rather be,
Light o' love in a lad's heart,
Or true woman, playing her part? "

I said, wild with young desire,
" I will not be a sit-by-the-fire,
No free bird houses him, lark or snipe,
But you sit chimney-side with a pipe. "

I flung my hair back,
And, with head high,
Danced forth out the door,
Lest I should cry.

Well I feared the lad I loved
Loved a blonde lass true,
And what against pale gold
Can a black head do?

She is soft and blue-eyed,

You were not cruel always! Nay,
When I said Come! one year ago:
Could you have lingered by the way?
Did not the very wind seem slow?

Then, had you tarried, I had known
Nor love's delight, nor lost love's pain:
Then, always had I lived alone.
Now, you need never come again.

I.

L OVE can wait!
Being so patient it is strong;
If in this world it wait in vain,
It surely shall not suffer long;
For in some other state,
Some life of larger scope,
It ultimately shall attain
The full fruition of its hope.
This is love's faith; defying fate,
Time, change, neglect and laughter,
It can wait