In the flush of the spring time, I saw thee, and seeing,
Loved with the love that had waited for thee.
A life that I never had known, sprang to being--
A life and a love that were heaven to me.
There never before was such warmth in the summer,
There never before were such hues in the fall,
Never such balm in the breath of that comer
Who shrouds the dead seasons, and rules over all.
Love, I have drunk in the charm of thy presence,
The elixir that grants me perpetual life.
My blood leaps, and bounds! I am thrilled with the essence,
And soar over trials, and troubles, and strife.
We live, and we love! and what grief can alarm us;
Darling, my darling, the world is our own!
Life never can rob us--death cannot disarm us
Of this, our vast riches, our wealth, love, alone.
The summer is dead! Did'st know it, my darling?
Did'st know that the winter walked over the earth?
The gold-breasted thrush, and the quaker-crowned starling
Make glad other lands, with their innocent mirth.
Ah no! for the summer of love in thy bosom,
Make summer and sunlight, for thee, everywhere.
I should not have known: but I missed the bright blossom
That all through the summer, I saw in thy hair.
1870
[DISPLAY]
Oh, households wherein skeletons abide!
Keep the dark closet closed, nor think it wise
To throw the door open for stranger eyes,
To see the grinning, fleshless thing inside.
I hate that senseless, imbecile display
Of loathsome things, that calls the gaping crowd
To gaze and comment. Let the screening shroud
Cover the faces of the dead, I say.
And if a household counts a skeleton,
Then keep the ghastly phantom closeted;
Nor flaunt the bones of the unquiet dead
For all the vulgar throng to gaze upon.
Oh, you whose souls are burdened cruelly,
Who shrink in anguish at the bitter smart
That gnaweth, burneth, at your very heart--
Cover the wounds, that strangers shall not see!
Think you a bleeding heart will sooner heal,
To hang where all the cutting winds that blow,
And all the birds of prey can mock its woe?
I hate that vain parade, of all we feel.