I LOVE YOU, KATE.
Dreaming rapturously,
Dearest Kate,
Full elate
I seek your side to-night.
Long, weary hours I wait
Each day,
Each day,
To see the glorious light
Of your face,—
To me, earth’s rarest boon,
That makes my night
A summer’s day,
The summer’s day
A bright and vernal noon,
The noon eternity.
Oh, sitting beauteously
Upon Love’s throne aboon
With sceptered sway
O’er all my way,
Still of my night
Make one eternal sun
To shine thro’ space
With life and love and light
For aye
And aye;
Nor longer bid me wait,
But say me “yes” to-night;
Because, by fate
I love you, Kate!—
Oh will you marry me!
[In the above, first rhymes with last, second with second from last, and so on.]
THE DEAD MAN’S LIFE.
(That is, practically dead.)
Day after day have I secretly prayed
From the morn thro’ noon till night
That my life might discover some port in the west
Like the haven of sweet heaven’s Light.
Eve after eve as the sun has gone down,
With my eyes still turned to the west
I have prayed to the irised Pacific profound
For even its restful unrest.
Night after night in my bed full awake
I have dreamed myself weeping alone
In a silence as deep as the stars of the night
O’er a corse that I knew was my own.
Morn after morn have I risen from bed
With the fear and the hope of its truth,
Only to find that the death of the Dead
Is bought at the dream-god’s booth.