How It Happened

I pray you, pardon me, Elsie, And smile that frown away That dims the light of your lovely face As a thunder-cloud the day.

I really could not help it,-- Before I thought, 't was done,-- And those great gray eyes flashed bright and cold, Like an icicle in the sun.

I was thinking of the summers When we were boys and girls, And wandered in the blossoming woods, And the gay winds romped with your curls.

And you seemed to me the same little girl I kissed in the alder-path, I kissed the little girl's lips, and alas!

I have roused a woman's wrath.

There is not so much to pardon,-- For why were your lips so red?

The blond hair fell in a shower of gold From the proud, provoking head.

And the beauty that flashed from the splendid eyes, And played round the tender mouth, Rushed over my soul like a warm sweet wind That blows from the fragrant south.

And where, after all, is the harm done?

I believe we were made to be gay, And all of youth not given to love Is vainly squandered away.

And strewn through life's low labors, Like gold in the desert sands, Are love's swift kisses and sighs and vows And the clasp of clinging hands.

And when you are old and lonely, In Memory's magic shine You will see on your thin and wasting hands, Like gems, these kisses of mine.

And when you muse at evening At the sound of some vanished name, The ghost of my kisses shall touch your lips And kindle your heart to flame.

G.o.d's Vengeance

Saith the Lord, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay," saith the Lord; Ours be the anger divine, Lit by the flash of his word.

How shall his vengeance be done?

How, when his purpose is clear?

Must he come down from his throne?

Hath he no instruments here?

Sleep not in imbecile trust Waiting for G.o.d to begin, While, growing strong in the dust, Rests the bruised serpent of sin.

Right and Wrong,--both cannot live Death-grappled. Which shall we see?

Strike! only Justice can give Safety to all that shall be.

Shame! to stand paltering thus, Tricked by the balancing odds; Strike! G.o.d is waiting for us!

Strike! for the vengeance is G.o.d's.

Too Late

Had we but met in other days, Had we but loved in other ways, Another light and hope had shone On your life and my own.

In sweet but hopeless reveries I fancy how your wistful eyes Had saved me, had I known their power In fate's imperious hour;

How loving you, beloved of G.o.d, And following you, the path I trod Had led me, through your love and prayers.

To G.o.d's love unawares:

And how our beings joined as one Had pa.s.sed through checkered shade and sun, Until the earth our lives had given, With little change, to heaven.

G.o.d knows why this was not to be.

You bloomed from childhood far from me, The sunshine of the favored place That knew your youth and grace.

And when your eyes, so fair and free, In fearless beauty beamed on me, I knew the fatal die was thrown, My choice in life was gone.

And still with wild and tender art Your child-love touched my torpid heart, Gilding the blackness where it fell, Like sunlight over h.e.l.l.

In vain, in vain! my choice was gone!

Better to struggle on alone Than blot your pure life's blameless shine With cloudy stains of mine.

A vague regret, a troubled prayer, And then the future vast and fair Will tempt your young and eager eyes With all its glad surprise.

And I shall watch you, safe and far, As some late traveller eyes a star Wheeling beyond his desert sands To gladden happier lands.

Love's Doubt

'Tis love that blinds my heart and eyes,-- I sometimes say in doubting dreams,-- The face that near me perfect seems Cold Memory paints in fainter dyes.

'T was but love's dazzled eyes--I say-- That made her seem so strangely bright; The face I worshipped yesternight, I dread to meet it changed to-day.

As, when dies out some song's refrain, And leaves your eyes in happy tears, Awake the same fond idle fears,-- It cannot sound so sweet again.

You wait and say with vague annoy, "It will not sound so sweet again,"

Until comes back the wild refrain That floods your soul with treble joy.

So when I see my love again Fades the unquiet doubt away, While shines her beauty like the day Over my happy heart and brain.

And in that face I see no more The fancied faults I idly dreamed, But all the charms that fairest seemed, I find them, fairer than before.

Lagrimas

G.o.d send me tears!

Loose the fierce band that binds my tired brain, Give me the melting heart of other years, And let me weep again!

Before me pa.s.s The shapes of things inexorably true.

Gone is the sparkle of transforming dew From every blade of gra.s.s.