University of Virginia Library

Search this document 

expand section 
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
WORDS AND THOUGHTS
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 


26

WORDS AND THOUGHTS

He said, as he sat in her theater box
Between the acts: “What beastly weather!
How like a parrot the lover talks,
And the lady is tame, and the villain stalks.
I hope they finally die together.”
He thought: “You are fair as the dawn's first ray;
I know the angels keep guard above you.
And so I chatter of weather and play,
While all the time I am mad to say,
‘I love you, love you, love you.’”
He said: “The season is almost run.
How glad we are when the farce is over,
For the toil of pleasure is more than its fun,
And what is it all when all is done,
But the stick of a rocket that has descended.”
He thought: “O God, to be off somewhere,
Afar with you from this scene of fashion;
To know you were mine and to have you care,
And to lose myself in the crimson snare
Of your lips in a kiss of passion.”
He said: “You are going abroad, no doubt,
The land of Liberty coldly scorning;
I, too, shall journey a bit about,
From Wall Street up by the L road out
To Harlem—and down each morning.”

27

He thought: “It must follow on land or sea,
This pent-up, passionate, dumb devotion,
Till the cry of a rapture that may not be
Shall reach your heart from the heart of me,
And stir you with strange emotion.”