His Lady of the Sonnets

HIS LADY OF THE SONNETS
ROBERT W. NORWOOD
BOSTON SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 1915
COPYRIGHT, 1915 SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY
MY WIFE
I shall never, in the years remaining, Paint you pictures, no, nor carve you statues, Make you music that should all-express me; So it seems: I stand on my attainment. This of verse alone, one life allows me; Verse and nothing else have I to give you. Other heights in other lives, God willing: All the gifts from all the heights, your own, Love! ROBERT BROWNING.
CONTENTS
SONNETS AND SONGS

HIS LADY OF THE SONNETS
My soul awoke from slumber—the long ease Of years that passed away in dull content, Not caring what the world's deep voices meant— Sunk in my dreams, I heard their harmonies Like wind-blown clamour of far-calling seas That told of Ithaca to sailors spent With trouble, and forgetful at the scent And taste of fruit plucked from the lotus trees;
For as I slept, your footsteps on the grass, Your voice, wrought once again the Miracle Of Eden; and I saw appear and pass Eve in her beauty, binding still the spell That Adam felt, when from his opened side Stepped Woman forth in loveliness and pride.