University of Virginia Library

'Twas prime of May; and every square became
A murmuring camp of Summer. Now and then
A dizzy and bewildered butterfly
Fluttered through noisy streets. A week was mine,
To wander uncontrolled as cloud or breeze.
The eve before I went, there came a thirst
Upon me for her presence. Long I stood,
My hand upon her door, my fearful heart
Loud in my ears. I heard her sweet “Come in,”
And entered. She was standing in the light,
Upgathering, in the bondage of the comb,
Her glorious waves of hair. She welcomed me
With dazzling laughter:—“Oh, I'm glad you've come!
See this rich present sleeping in its folds!
Do tell me how I look.” The crimson scarf
She wreathed around her shoulders and her head,
Till her sweet face was set and framed in silk;
And then, a very sunbeam in my eyes,
She stood and smiled; soon with a sullen lip
She stripped the glowing silk from neck and head,
And threw it down; then clapped her tiny hands,
And, round me standing in a marsh of doubt,
She danced like elfin fire. “In dream” (I spoke,
Bewildered by her sunshine and her shade)
“I saw a rose of such a breadth and glow,
It seemed as it had sucked into its heart
All fragrance, sun, and colour, and had left
Its poor defrauded sisterhood to hang
Their pale heads scentless in the careless wind;
But ere, with happy hand, I plucked the rose—
A summer in itself—and brought it thee,
I woke to barren midnight.” “Bah!” She turned,
And froze my speech to silence with a look.
“In dreamland you have very vast estates,
Not worth an ear of corn.” At her disdain
Laughing outright, I said, “The scornful flag
That flouts by day and night besieging foes,
Falls in their hands. I came to say good-bye.”
“Well.”

“I leave the city for some days; and thought
That you might like—”

“What?”

“To see me ere I went.”