Bibliography. The Bookman (March, 1910); The Forum (June, 1911); Cosmopolitan Magazine (December, 1912).
SPRING[89]
[From Manhattan, a Poem (New York, 1909)]
Spring comes to town like some mad girl, who runs
With silver feet upon the Avenue,
And, like Ophelia, in her tresses twines
The first young blossoms—purple violets
And golden daffodils. These are enough—
These fragile handfuls of miraculous bloom—
To make the monster City feel the Spring!
One dash of color on her dun-grey hood,
One flash of yellow near her pallid face,
And she and April are the best of friends—
Benighted town that needs a friend so much!
How she responds to that first soft caress,
And draws the hoyden Spring close to her heart,
And thrills and sings, and for one little time
Forgets the foolish panic of her sons,
Forgets her sordid merchandise and trade,
And lightly trips, while hurdy-gurdies ring—
A wise old crone upon a holiday!
SLOW PARTING[90]
[From Youth and Other Poems (New York, 1911)]
There was no certain hour
Wherein we said good-bye;
But day by day, and year by year
We parted—you and I;
And ever as we met, each felt
The shadow of a lie.
It would have been too hard
To say a swift farewell;
You could not goad your tongue to name
The words that rang my knell;
But better that quick death than this
Glad heaven and mad hell!
OF DEATH