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548

“A VOICE IN THE SCENTED NIGHT”

This, and the pieces at p. 569 and p. 589, appeared in the Century Magazine, and are here reproduced by permission.

[_]

(Villanelle at Verona)

A voice in the scented night,—
A step where the rose-trees blow,—
O Love, and O Love's delight!
Cold star at the blue vault's height,
What is it that shakes you so?
A voice in the scented night!
She comes in her beauty bright,—
She comes in her young love's glow,—
O Love, and O Love's delight!
She bends from her casement white,
And she hears it, hushed and low,
A voice in the scented night.
And he climbs by that stairway slight,—
Her passionate Romeo:—
O Love, and O Love's delight!
For it stirs us still in spite
Of its “ever so long ago,”
That voice in the scented night,—
O Love, and O Love's delight!
1902.
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