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119

ONE CHANCE

SONNET

One life; one chance; one woman to adore;
One rose to worship:—once and never again
Love to our bosom with sweet tears to strain;
Once to kiss soft lips on some moonlit shore:
Once all our soul in music to outpour,
And once to enter Passion's golden fane,
And once to launch upon the stormy main
Of wild Romance where poets sank of yore:—
Just once, and then the end;—one chance we have,
One life for singing,—then our lips are sealed,
And over us the green grass of the field
And the green fern-fronds and white roses wave:
One life for music,—then the silent grave,
And lands where never morning bugle pealed.
1881.