 | The select poems of Dr. Thomas Dunn English (exclusive of the "Battle lyrics") |  |
HELEN.
The Winter of my life is here:
Leafless the trees around appear:
The straggling sunbeams faintly glow;
Sheeted the dying year in snow;
Yet memory, at three score and ten,
Creates life's early Spring again.
Leafless the trees around appear:
The straggling sunbeams faintly glow;
Sheeted the dying year in snow;
Yet memory, at three score and ten,
Creates life's early Spring again.
Before these worn and dimming eyes
What phantoms of the past arise!
The lost love of my early days
Appears to my enraptured gaze:
And then events before me pass
Like figures in Agrippa's glass.
What phantoms of the past arise!
The lost love of my early days
Appears to my enraptured gaze:
And then events before me pass
Like figures in Agrippa's glass.
Where green Passaic foaming sweeps
By grassy slopes and rocky steeps,
My Helen dwelt, no fairy she,
And yet it ever seemed to me,
All coarser things from thence were banned,
The place around her fairy land.
By grassy slopes and rocky steeps,
My Helen dwelt, no fairy she,
And yet it ever seemed to me,
All coarser things from thence were banned,
The place around her fairy land.
250
She was a child, and I a child,
Both born within the woodland wild;
We roamed together playmates there;
I cared not were she swart or fair;
But when to womanhood she grew
My soul her wondrous beauty knew.
Both born within the woodland wild;
We roamed together playmates there;
I cared not were she swart or fair;
But when to womanhood she grew
My soul her wondrous beauty knew.
'Twas sunset. At the gate we stood;
We had been wandering in the wood,
Gathering the flowers beneath the trees,
The bluets and anemones,
And these within her hand she held
When tongue to speak my heart impelled.
We had been wandering in the wood,
Gathering the flowers beneath the trees,
The bluets and anemones,
And these within her hand she held
When tongue to speak my heart impelled.
I said—I know not what I said;
Blushing, my darling drooped her head
(Her heart's blood showing through the thin
And delicate confine of her skin),
And, sinking on my throbbing breast,
Without a word her love confessed.
Blushing, my darling drooped her head
(Her heart's blood showing through the thin
And delicate confine of her skin),
And, sinking on my throbbing breast,
Without a word her love confessed.
Sunny the morn when we were wed;
The day of June its fragrance shed;
The breath of roses filled the air;
The birds sang tunes beyond compare:
Earth changed to heaven, life grew divine,
For I was hers and she was mine.
The day of June its fragrance shed;
The breath of roses filled the air;
The birds sang tunes beyond compare:
Earth changed to heaven, life grew divine,
For I was hers and she was mine.
Two happy years—then evermore
The Springtime of my life gave o'er.
Upon a dark and gloomy day
We bore to earth her lifeless clay,
And left her to her lonely rest,
Her new-born babe upon her breast.
The Springtime of my life gave o'er.
Upon a dark and gloomy day
We bore to earth her lifeless clay,
And left her to her lonely rest,
Her new-born babe upon her breast.
251
I was alone—I am alone;
Though forty years have slowly flown;
No other mate was mine since then;
I did not care to mate again;
My heart was locked and barred, and she
There in her coffin held the key.
Though forty years have slowly flown;
No other mate was mine since then;
I did not care to mate again;
My heart was locked and barred, and she
There in her coffin held the key.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, all have passed,
And aged Winter holds me fast;
And yet, beneath my memory fond,
As though through some enchanter's wand,
Above the ice, above the snows,
Blossom the lily and the rose.
And aged Winter holds me fast;
And yet, beneath my memory fond,
As though through some enchanter's wand,
Above the ice, above the snows,
Blossom the lily and the rose.
| The select poems of Dr. Thomas Dunn English (exclusive of the "Battle lyrics") | |