When the rose's flash to the sunset
Reels to the wrack and the twist,
And the rose is a red bygone,
When the face I love is going
And the gate to the end shall clang,
And it's no use to beckon or say, "So long" —
Maybe I'll tell you then —
some other time.
I never knew any more beautiful than you:
I have hunted you under my thoughts,
I have broken down under the wind
And into the roses looking for you.
I shall never find any
greater than you.
Dialogue. [Walter Conrad Arensberg]
Be patient, Life, when Love is at the gate,
And when he enters let him be at home.
Think of the roads that he has had to roam.
Think of the years that he has had to wait.
~But if I let Love in I shall be late.
Another has come first — there is no room.
And I am thoughtful of the endless loom —
Let Love be patient, the importunate.~
O Life, be idle and let Love come in,
And give thy dreamy hair that Love may spin.
~But Love himself is idle with his song.
Let Love come last, and then may Love last long.~
Be patient, Life, for Love is not the last.
Be patient now with Death, for Love has passed.
Song. [Margaret Widdemer]
The Spring will come when the year turns,
As if no Winter had been,
But what shall I do with a locked heart
That lets no new year in?