How beautiful thou wast! Thy snowy gown,
Whose rustle made sweet music, part revealed
Thy perfect form. Thy thoughtful eyes and brown,
Beneath their drooping lashes half concealed,
Swam in a sea of tears. Thy tresses played
Wild wanton with the wind, and kissed each cheek,
That flushed and paled, till one had well nigh said.
Thy very blood did think and love and speak.
We sat within the shelter of the boat.
That, buried in the sand for half its length,
Before the black-browed storm no more would float
Nor like a gull defy the tempest's strength.
We spoke of pleasures past, of joys to be
When we should meet again nor ever part.
I faltered forth my deathless love for thee,
And in thy tearful silence read thy heart.
We looked upon the setting of the sun;
We marked the summer twilight fade away;
We saw the star-worlds rising, one by one,
And, stooping, kiss the surface of the bay.
Then sitting in the moonlight, each by each,
I bent and kissed away thy lingering tears;
While ever plunged the billows on the beach
And sent their dreary cadence to our ears.
The sun was swimming in the purple tide,
His golden locks far floating on the sea,
When I stole forth yestre'en and sat beside
The stranded wreck to dream again of thee.
Across my cheek I felt the marsh wind sweep,
Still called the sea along the darkening shore,
Again the changeless stars began to peep;
Naught save thyself had changed since days of yore.
O! happy period of my early youth!
When Love was master, Reason but a slave,
When friends seemed heroes, woman crystal truth,
Success the certain portion of the brave:
Come back, come back and give me ere I die
The pure ideal of my life again!
In vain I plead. Time's snowy ashes lie
Cold on the hearth-stone of my aged brain.
AT CHATEAUGUAY.
Memory gleams like a gem at night
Through the gloom of to-day for me,
Bringing dreams of a summer bright
At Chateauguay.
Summer sleeps in the ripening corn,
Sunlight glitters on wood and lea,
Scent of flowers on the air is borne
At Chateauguay.
Swiftly rushes the river by,
Through the lake to the far-off sea,
Full of light as a maiden's eye,
At Chateauguay.
Stands a house by the river side,
(Weeds upspring where the hearth should be),
Only its tottering walls abide
At Chateauguay.