Feda with Other Poems Chiefly Lyrical. By Rennell Rodd ... With an Etching by Harper Pennington |
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A MEMORY. |
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 | Feda with Other Poems |  |
151
A MEMORY.
I wish I could hear you laugh again, just one
Clear ring, your finger pointed in fun
In the unconstrained sweet way that took
The room with a ripple of life, and shook
The mind's cobwebs, in the merry play
That suffered no word of mine gainsay
Its shrill resistance;—then, I would wait
Till the storm was over, and grave as fate
Ignore the imperious child-behest,
Point out the flaw in your reason's best,
Reprove till the beautiful eyes grew sad,
As it needed penance to have been glad,
And the vehement mouth lost all its mirth
In the loveliest smile I have seen on earth,
Till you came to accord with your warm word, “friend,”
And took my word on your lips to blend
With a touch of yourself that made it new,
And felt more keenly, and twice as true,
And the way for the world was the way we knew.
Clear ring, your finger pointed in fun
In the unconstrained sweet way that took
The room with a ripple of life, and shook
The mind's cobwebs, in the merry play
That suffered no word of mine gainsay
Its shrill resistance;—then, I would wait
Till the storm was over, and grave as fate
Ignore the imperious child-behest,
Point out the flaw in your reason's best,
Reprove till the beautiful eyes grew sad,
As it needed penance to have been glad,
And the vehement mouth lost all its mirth
In the loveliest smile I have seen on earth,
Till you came to accord with your warm word, “friend,”
And took my word on your lips to blend
With a touch of yourself that made it new,
And felt more keenly, and twice as true,
And the way for the world was the way we knew.
152
Now I wonder, child, as the days grow old,
Is the laugh as loud, are the lips as bold,
Is the heart as warm and the life as glad,
The pity as quick and the smile as sad?
And if ever you think of the graver eyes
That stayed your riot of swift replies,
And calmed the torrent, the while they blest
The keen life-throbbing of your unrest!
And what you do as the days go by,
And think, and whether you learn as I
That the new dreams pass and the old remain!
And I wish I could hear you laugh again!
Is the laugh as loud, are the lips as bold,
Is the heart as warm and the life as glad,
The pity as quick and the smile as sad?
And if ever you think of the graver eyes
That stayed your riot of swift replies,
And calmed the torrent, the while they blest
The keen life-throbbing of your unrest!
And what you do as the days go by,
And think, and whether you learn as I
That the new dreams pass and the old remain!
And I wish I could hear you laugh again!
| Feda with Other Poems | |