NAY, tell me not. I will not know.

She looked and hated the sky,Yet knew not what was her ill.Ah well-a-day!For the lonely May.She tired of weeping, and slept;Who woke her up but the Sun?And joy and love had begunTo teach her why she had weptOh bright new dayFor the startled May!

‘Twas sad; yet sadness has its morrow;Blue skies succeed skies overcast:Why should grief last?Something that’s passing, something dying.Well, weep one’s fill,Spend grief’s sweet courtesy, go sighing;But violets break from snow-time’s chill:Who can mourn still?Aye, let me pass. No life will miss meSave few first days.A shudder, stooping down to kiss me,A little love and tardy…

That to have reached the best is leaving it;That final loss bears date from having found.So some proud vessel in a narrow soundSails at high water with the fair wind fit,And lo! the ebb along the sandy spit,Lower and lower till she jars, aground.‘Tis hard. We are young still but more content;‘Tis our ripe flush,…

If I were gone your life would be no moreThan his who, hungering on a rocky shore,Shipwrecked, alone, observes the ebb and flowOf hopeless ocean widening forth below,And is remembering all that was before.Dear, I believe it, at your strong heart’s coreI am the life; no need to tell me so.And yet–Ah, husband, though I…

Seeds of a lily with blood-red coreBreathing of myrrh and of giroflore:Where winds drop them there must they lie,Living or dying.Some to the garden, some to the wall,Fluttering, falling;Some to the river, some to earth:Those that reach the right soil get birth;None of the rest have lived at all.—Whose voice is calling:‘Here is soil for…

Knows she’ll be she his tiny soul loves best;‘Tis love-time at the hawthorn blossom’s date:And the new flower-cups bare their hearts and waitWhile careless breezes bring them love for guest;And Youth laughs ready for the glad unrest;But Love that chooses lingers desolate.And I, who seek, and yearn for love to stir,And I, who seek, and…