Persephone! Persephone!
Lull him with love that unto me
No thought may leap with sudden ire,
And steal again my heart’s desire
When she shall come. Ye Gods! that light!
It shone when on that fatal night
The dæmons took her from my side;—
’Tis she! they bring her back! my bride!
Let Pluto wake—let Jove decree—
My self—my soul—come back to me
My joy in life and death to be—
Eurydice! Eurydice!
Persephone! Persephone!
A moment more and we are free;
I feel the breath of outer air,
I see the upper stars so fair,
I hear the lapping of salt waves,
I see the light of day that saves,
I feel the pulsing heart-throbs run
Through her fair limbs, I watch the sun
Uprising in her eyes—and see!
Its living light thrills into me;
She has come back! come back to me—
Eurydice! Eurydice!
DEAD SUMMER.
The lord and lover of the year is slain,
Fair Summer! Nature’s joy and earth’s sweet pride.
The wind mourns sadly as a mournful bride
Loading the air with monodies of pain;
Down from the branches rustle, light as rain,
The rarely-coloured leaves; afar and wide
Blight-stricken blossoms strew the country-side,
No more to deck it with delight again;
The bright winged choristers that carolled round
Sweet overflowings of supernal joy,
No more their thrilling ecstasies employ
To glad man’s soul with music’s purest sound;
Summer lies dead upon the lap of earth,
Pale melancholy weeps where late laughed mirth.
AUTUMN.
When Autumn, like a prophet filled with fears,
Warns Summer’s golden beauty of that death
Which soon the chilling blast of Winter’s breath
Shall bring; fond Nature by her falling tears
Attests her grief unchanged through all the years,
And from the blossoms that lie dead beneath
Seizing the unseen colours, weaves a wreath,
And lo! a garland on each tree appears.
So, when to thee life’s end is drawing near
And weeping kinsmen kneel about thy bed
May all the rays of goodness thou hast shed
From out the buried past shine bright and clear,
And golden deeds and thoughts of heavenly hues
Over thy fading mind soft light diffuse.