Phaon. Red-lipped and breathing woman, made for love,
How can this clamouring heart of mine forget?
Sappho. You will forget, e'en though you would or no,
And the long years shall leave you free again;
And in some other Spring when other lips
Let fall my name, you will remember not.
Phaon. Enough,—but let me kiss the heavy rose
Of your red mouth.
Sappho. Not until Death has kissed
It white as these white garments, and has robed
This body for its groom.
Another characteristic poem of Stringer's, entitled A Prayer in Defeat, will bear comparison with William Ernest Henley's famous Unafraid:
"Still hurl me back, God, if Thou must!
Thy wrath, see, I shall bear—
I have been taught to know the dust
Of battle and despair.
"Bend not to me this hour, O God,
Where I defeated stand;
I have been schooled to bear thy rod,
And still wait, not unmanned!
"But should some white hour of success
Sweep me where, vine-like, lead
The widening roads, the clamouring press—
Then I thy lash shall need!
"Then, in that hour of triumph keen,
For then I ask thine aid;
God of the weak, on whom I lean,
Keep me then unafraid!"