To E.

SHARER OF PERFECT SUMMER DAYS
AT PARTRIDGE ISLAND
BASIN OF MINAS

Toronto, Canada, 1897


[(POESY SPEAKS.)]

A body of beauty is mine.
O poet, moulder of me,
Withhold not the breath divine,
The soul of truth that makes free.

Fair form in repose for a day
(The body of beauty of me)
With the pulse-beats of life all away,
Is well, for beauty and thee.

Yet give to me life all aglow,—
Not a demon of darkness to blight,
But a love-lit soul pure as snow,—
Beckon me an angel of light.