The college bell began to ring,
And as the north wind blew
Its distant janglings out to sea,
I thought, dear Friend, of you;
And how one warm September day,
While yet the woods were green,
We strayed across the happy hills
And this wide marsh between.
The hay-stacks dotted here and there
The water-meadows wide:
The even lines of sluices black
Were filling with the tide.
Then this salt stream, now winter bound,
Fled softly through the sedge,
Retreating from the sparkling Sound;
And there along its edge
We strolled, and marked the far-off sloops,
And watched the cattle graze.
O'erhead the swallows rushed in troops,
While bright with purple haze,
West Rock looked down the winding plain—
Ah! this was long ago;
The summer's gone, and you are gone,
As everything must go.
AMOURS PASSAGÈRES
Light loves and soon forgotten hates,
Heat-lightnings of the brooding summer sky—
Ye too bred of the summer's heat,
Ye too, like summer, fleet—
Ye have gone by.
Walks in the woods and whispers over gates,
Gay rivalries of tennis and croquet—
Gone with the summer sweet,
Gone with the swallow fleet
Southward away!
Breath of the rose, laughter of maids
Kissed into silence by the setting moon;
Wind of the morn that wakes and blows,
And hastening night that goes
Too soon—too soon!
Meetings and partings, tokens, serenades,
Tears—idle tears—and coy denials vain;
Flower of the summer's rose,
Say, will your leaves unclose
Ever again?