Shadows, shadows, 

Hug me round, 

So that I shall not be found

By sorrow: 

She pursues me

Everywhere, 

I can't lose her

Anywhere. 



Fold me in your black 

Abyss, 

She will never look

In this,—

Shadows, shadows, 

Hug me round 

In your solitude 

Profound. 

Farewell, sweetheart, and again farewell;

To day we part, and who can tell

     If we shall e’er again

Meet, and with clasped hands

Renew our vows of love, and forget

     The sad, dull pain.

Dear heart, ’tis bitter thus to lose thee

And think mayhap, you will forget me;

     And yet, I thrill

As I remember long and happy days

Fraught with sweet love and pleasant memories

     That linger still

You go to loved ones who will smile

And clasp you in their arms, and all the while

     I stay and moan

For you, my love, my heart and strive

To gather up life’s dull, gray thread

     And walk alone.

Aye, with you love the red and gold

Goes from my life, and leaves it cold

     And dull and bare,

Why should I strive to live and learn

And smile and jest, and daily try

     You from my heart to tare?

Nay, sweetheart, rather would I lie

Me down, and sleep for aye; or fly

      To regions far

Where cruel Fate is not and lovers live

Nor feel the grim, cold hand of Destiny

      Their way to bar.

I murmur not, dear love, I only say

Again farewell. God bless the day

      On which we met,

And bless you too, my love, and be with you

In sorrow or in happiness, nor let you

      E’er me forget.

 

                                    Life

I saw the candle brightly burning in the room! 
The fringed curtains gracefully draped back, 
The windows, crystal clear! 
Upon the generous hearth
Quick Wit and bubbling Laughter
    Flashed and danced
    Sparkled and pranced,
And music to the glowing scene lent cheer.
It was a gracious sight, 
So full of life, of love, of light! 

                                    Death 

Then suddenly I saw a cloud of gloom
Take form within the room:
A blue-grey mist obscured the window-panes
And silent fell the rout!
Then from the shadows came the Dreaded Shape,—
The candle flickered out!

The moon still sends its mellow light
Through the purple blackness of the night; 
The morning star is palely bright
                    Before the dawn. 

The sun still shines just as before; 
The rose still grows beside my door, 
                    But you have gone. 

The sky is blue and the robin sings; 
The butterflies dance on rainbow wings
                   Though I am sad. 

In all the earth no joy can be; 
Happiness comes no more to me, 
                   For you are dead. 

Among the beautiful pictures

  That hang on Memory’s wall.

Is one of a dim old forest,

  That seemeth best of all:

Not for its gnarled oaks olden.

  Dark with the mistletoe;

Not for the violets golden

  That sprinkle the vale below.

Not for the milk-white lilies

  That lean from the fragrant hedge.

Coquetting all day with the sunbeams,

  And stealing their shining edge;

Not for the vines on the upland

  Where the bright red berries be.

Nor the pinks, nor the pale, sweet cowslip,

  It seemeth the best to me.

I once had a little brother,

  With eyes that were dark and deep—

In the lap of that old dim forest

  He lieth in peace asleep:

Light as the down of the thistle.

  Free as the winds that blow.

We roved there the beautiful summers.

  The summers of long ago;

But his feet on the hills grew weary,

  And, one of the autumn eves,

I made for my little brother

  A bed of the yellow leaves.

Sweetly his pale arms folded

  My neck in a meek embrace,

As the light of immortal beauty

  Silently covered his face:

And when the arrows of sunset

  Lodged in the tree-tops bright,

He fell, in his saint-like beauty,

  Asleep by the gates of light.

Therefore, of all the pictures

  That hang on Memory's wall,

The one of the old dim forest

  Seemeth the best of all.

^{From the French of Massillon Coicou (Haiti)}

I hope when I am dead that I shall lie 

   In some deserted grave—I cannot tell you why, 

But I should like to sleep in some neglected spot

   Unknown to every one, by every one forgot. 

There lying I should taste with my dead breath

    The utter lack of life, the fullest sense of death; 

And I should never hear the note of jealousy or hate, 

   The tribute paid by passersby to tombs of state. 



To me would never penetrate the prayers and tears

    That futilely bring torture to daed and dying ears; 

There I should annihilate and my dead heart would bless

    Oblivion—the shroud and envelope of happiness.