ALL THE WAY
Not all my treasure hath the bandit Time
Locked in his glimmering caverns of the Past:
Fair women dead and friendships of old rhyme,
And noble dreams that had to end at last:—
Ah! these indeed; and from youth's sacristy
Full many a holy relic hath he torn,
Vessels of mystic faith God filled for me,
Holding them up to Him in life's young morn.
All these are mine no more—Time hath them all,
Time and his adamantine gaoler Death:
Despoilure vast—yet seemeth it but small,
When unto thee I turn, thy bloom and breath
Filling with light and incense the last shrine,
Innermost, inaccessible,—yea, thine.
CONTENTS
THE LONELY DANCER
I
FLOS AEVORUM "ALL THE WORDS IN ALL THE WORLD" "I SAID—I CARE NOT" "ALL THE WIDE WORLD IS BUT THE THOUGHT OF YOU" "LIGHTNINGS MAY FLICKER ROUND MY HEAD" "THE AFTERNOON IS LONELY FOR YOUR FACE" "SORE IN NEED WAS I OF A FAITHFUL FRIEND" "I THOUGHT, BEFORE MY SUNLIT TWENTIETH YEAR"
II
TO A BIRD AT DAWN ALMA VENUS "AH! DID YOU EVER HEAR THE SPRING" APRIL MAY IS BUILDING HER HOUSE SHADOW JUNE GREEN SILENCE SUMMER SONGS TO A WILD BIRD "I CROSSED THE ORCHARD WALKING HOME" "I MEANT TO DO MY WORK TO-DAY" "HOW FAST THE YEAR IS GOING BY" AUGUST MOONLIGHT TO A ROSE INVITATION SUMMER GOING AUTUMN TREASURE WINTER THE MYSTIC FRIENDS THE COUNTRY GODS
III