The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume 2 (of 5) / New world idylls and poems of love

THE POEMS OF MADISON CAWEIN VOLUME II NEW WORLD IDYLLS AND POEMS OF LOVE

Volume II NEW WORLD IDYLLS AND POEMS OF LOVE Illustrated WITH PHOTOGRAVURES AFTER PAINTINGS BY ERIC PAPE INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1902, 1905 and 1907, by Madison Cawein
Copyright, 1896, by Copeland and Day; 1898, by R. H Russell; 1901, by Richard G. Badger and Company
PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. WITH ENDURING FRIENDSHIP, LOVE AND LOYALTY TO JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
O lyrist of the lowly and the true, The song I sought for you Still bides unsung. What hope for me to find, Lost in the dædal mind, The living utterance with lovely tongue, To sing,—as once he sung, Rare Ariosto, of Knight-Errantry,— How you in Poesy, Song’s Paladin, Knight of the Dream and Day, The shield of magic sway! Of that Atlantes’ power, sweet and terse, The skyey-builded verse! The shield that dazzles, brilliant with surprise, Our unanointed eyes.— Oh, could I write as it were worthy you, Each word, a spark of dew,— As once Ferdusi wrote in Persia,— Would string each rosy spray Of each unfolding flower of my song; And Iran’s bulbul tongue Would sob its heart out o’er the fountain’s slab In gardens of Afrasiab.

The mottled moth at eventide Beats glimmering wings against the pane; The slow, sweet lily opens wide, White in the dusk like some dim stain; The garden dreams on every side And breathes faint scents of rain: Among the flowering stocks they stand; A crimson rose is in her hand.
Outside her garden. He waits musing :
Herein the dearness of her is; The thirty perfect days of June Made one, in maiden loveliness Were not more sweet to clasp and kiss, With love not more in tune.
Ah me! I think she is too true, Too spiritual for life’s rough way: So say her eyes,—her soul looks through,— Two bluet blossoms, watchet-blue, Are not more pure than they.