THE ANXIOUS LOVER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 24, 31 March 1893, Page 29

THE ANXIOUS LOVER.

(J. K. E.) I saw & damsel in a sombre room, Laid low in beds of purple violet, And pale, sweet roses Bcenting all the gloom ; And then I thought, This is a gray sunset Of daja of loving life, Shalt he who stands Beside her bier, in sorrow for his love, Be first in Heaven to clasp her gentle hands To bow with her before the Lord aboTe ? If love can die, let my heait be as cold As Galatea's was before the words Of the warm sculptor drew it from the mould And made her hear the sound of the einging birds ; LoTe'i sunshine and lovt's shadows are they all Like April gun tnd shadow on the earth I If love can die at signt of funeral-pall, Would I had ttrangled it in its lad birth 1 I know that the sweet spring will surely go And leave no trace, except a blossom dry ; 1 know that life will pass as passes snow When March winds blow and river fljode aro high ; 1 kaow that all the maples on the hill That fire the air with flame to ashes bura ; 1 know that all the sieging birds that fill To air with song to Bilent duat will turn. Ob 1 love, my love, can \*, then, ever bo That thou or I may gaza upoa love's deach 1 That thou ehalt some day sad and ei'entiy Look on me dumb and cold and without breath ? Or shall I see thee lying white and wan, Like yonder damßel in the flower bed, And only s>y, " My lady sweet has gone ; She's lost to me ; s^t's dead — what nisaneth ' dead' ?" If love can die, then I will no more look Into thy eyes, and see thy pure thjughts there, Nor will I read in any poet'd book Of all the things that poet's make co fair. If love can die, the poei'd art is vain, And thy blue eyes might well be blossoms blue, And thy eoft tea p s be only senseless rain, If love can die, like tl jwers and soulless dew. I care not for thy smile, if love cm die ; If I must leave the-, kt me leave thee now. Shall I not know thee, if in Heaven high I enter and before the Holy bow 1 Shalt thou not know me waen before the throae Thou, white-robed one, shalt enter into li^ht ? I cannot think the Lord of love has sowa ilia precious seed to make bat one day bright. Would I were dead, if death could be the end Of all the loving that makes lifj so fa.r ! If love can die, I pray the sun may send An arrow through my head, that death may tear Away my soul, and make mj Boon forget The fair, sweet hope of love's eternal day, Which yet might die l.ke purple violet Strewn on the robj of her that passed away 1 Ab ! love, my love, when I look in thy eyes, And bear tby voice, like pof tened homely bills,

Coming to one who loDg baa sent up sia;aß From foreign lands to be where his love dwells, " The earth may crumble, but oar love and we Shall live foiever. Tnis ia true ?" I cry. My heart lifts up itself in ecstasy. 11 Life were not life if our great love could die." — Maurice F. Eqan'S volume, " Songs and Sonne's.' 1