Domestic Bliss
IV
Sequestered in their calm domestic bower,
They sat together. He in manhood’s prime
And she a matron in her fullest flower.
The mantel clock gave forth a warning chime.
She put her work aside; his bright cigar
Grew pale, and crumbled in an ashen heap.
The lights went out, save one remaining star
That watched beside the children in their sleep.
She hummed a little song and nestled near,
As side by side they went to their repose.
His arm about her waist, he whispered “Dear,”
And pressed his lips upon her mouth’s full rose—
The sacred sweetness of their wedded life
Breathed in that kiss of husband and of wife.
Old Age
V
The young see heaven—but to the old who wait
The final call, the hills of youth arise
More beautiful than shores of Paradise.
Beside a glowing and voracious grate
A dozing couple dream of yesterday;
The islands of a vanished past appear,
Bringing forgotten names and faces near;
While lost in mist, the present fades away.
The fragrant winds of tender memories blow
Across the gardens of the “Used-to-be!”
They smile into each other’s eyes, and see
The bride and bridegroom of the long ago.
And tremulous lips, pressed close to faded cheek
Love’s silent tale of deathless passion speak.
RETROSPECTION
I look down the lengthening distance
Far back to youth’s valley of hope.
How strange seemed the ways of existence,
How infinite life and its scope!
What dreams, what ambitions came thronging
To people a world of my own!
How the heart in my bosom was longing,
For pleasures and places unknown.
But the hill-tops of pleasure and beauty
Were covered with mist at the dawn;
And only the rugged road Duty
Shone clear, as my feet wandered on.
I loved not the path and its leading,
I hated the rocks and the dust;
But a Voice from the Silence was pleading,
It spoke but one syllable—“Trust.”
I saw, as the morning grew older,
The fair flowered hills of delight;
And the feet of my comrades grew bolder,
They hurried away from my sight.