 | Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) |  |
XI.—For a Book of Light Rhymes.
Come, volatile Folly, of the roguish eyes
And locks blown refluent from fair mirthful face,
Come, brilliant in your bell-besprinkled guise,
Come, delicate as the first shy rose of June,
With childlike upcurled lips and dancing eyes,
With helm-shaped jingling cap and scarlet shoon.
And locks blown refluent from fair mirthful face,
Come, brilliant in your bell-besprinkled guise,
Come, delicate as the first shy rose of June,
With childlike upcurled lips and dancing eyes,
With helm-shaped jingling cap and scarlet shoon.
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Come forth and wake the indolent echoes well,
With many a random burst of reckless glee,
With tinkle of wrist-bell and of ankle-bell,
With clear insatiate song and laughter bold!
Thou red-lipped romp, come forth, I charge of thee,
Come, chide the old weary world for growing old!
With many a random burst of reckless glee,
With tinkle of wrist-bell and of ankle-bell,
With clear insatiate song and laughter bold!
Thou red-lipped romp, come forth, I charge of thee,
Come, chide the old weary world for growing old!
For oh, 'tis a world of yearnings and of tears,
A world of labor and death and chilling loss!
And rarely enough the parsimonious years
Give heartsease, and full oft unsavory rue;
And many a frail back bears a heavy cross,
And many a sweet bloom dies for lack of dew.
A world of labor and death and chilling loss!
And rarely enough the parsimonious years
Give heartsease, and full oft unsavory rue;
And many a frail back bears a heavy cross,
And many a sweet bloom dies for lack of dew.
But better if we laugh blithely now and then,
Turning upon the past sad memory's key;
Ah, better in truth, worn women, weary men,
Than waste an hour with grief, regret or spleen,
Watch this mad Folly of mine, in songful glee,
Pirouette beneath her ribboned tambourine!
Turning upon the past sad memory's key;
Ah, better in truth, worn women, weary men,
Than waste an hour with grief, regret or spleen,
Watch this mad Folly of mine, in songful glee,
Pirouette beneath her ribboned tambourine!
| Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) | |