University of Virginia Library


21

V. THE TEARLESS DAYS

Was it sweet to have lived, I wonder,
In the days when the world was young?
When, parting the boughs in sunder,
In the forest the wood-nymph sung?
Was it sweet, in the woods' recesses,
To mark 'neath a moonlit sky
The glitter of Venus' tresses
As the queen and her train swept by?
She must have been grand and peerless,
Queen Venus, with Love in her train.
Then the eyes of the world were tearless:
Will they ever be tearless again?
Our woods and our groves are chilly,
The goddess is no more there:
'Mid our rocks and regions hilly
We mark not the light of her hair.

22

But still on the hedge there are roses,
There is light in our true love's eyes;
In the woods there are wild-flower posies,
And the sun still smiles in the skies.
Not a dark cloud threatens with thunder,
Not a white storm-wave gives tongue:
Shall we ever grow old, I wonder,
While the love in our hearts is young?