POET, my master, come, tell me true,
And how are your verses made?
Ah! that is the easiest thing to do:—
You take a cloud of a silvern hue,
A tender smile or a sprig of rue,
With plenty of light and shade,
And weave them round in syllables rare,
With a grace and skill divine;
With the earnest words of a pleading prayer,
With a cadence caught from a dulcet air,
A tale of love and a lock of hair,
Or a bit of a trailing vine.
Or, delving deep in a mine unwrought,
You find in the teeming earth
The golden vein of a noble thought;
The soul of a statesman still unbought,
Or a patriot's cry with anguish fraught
For the land that gave him birth.
A brilliant youth who has lost his way
On the winding road of life;
A sculptor's dream of the plastic clay;
A painter's soul in a sunset ray;
The sweetest thing a woman can say,
Or a struggling nation's strife.
A boy's ambition; a maiden's star,
Unrisen, but yet to be;
A glimmering light that shines afar
For a sinking ship on a moaning bar;
An empty sleeve; a veteran's scar;
Or a land where men are free.
And if the poet's hand be strong
To weave the web of a deathless song,
And if a master guide the pen
To words that reach the hearts of men,
And if the ear and the touch be true,
It's the easiest thing in the world to do!

"PLACE AUX DAMES"

[To M.]

WITH brilliant friends surrounding me,
So cosy at the Club I'm sitting;
While you at home I seem to see,
Attending strictly to your knitting.
When women have their rights, my dear,
We'll hear no more of wrongs so shocking:—
You with your friends shall gather here;
I'll stay at home and darn the stocking!

ALL ON A GOLDEN SUMMER DAY

ALL on a golden summer day,
As through the leaves a single ray
Of yellow sunshine finds its way
So bright, so bright;
The wakened birds that blithely sing
Seem welcoming another spring;
While all the woods are murmuring
So light, so light.
All on a golden summer day,
When to my heart a single ray
Of tender kindness finds its way,
So bright, so bright;
Then comes sweet hope and bravely dares
To break the chain that sorrow wears—
And all my burdens, all my cares
Are light, so light!