BONNIE DOON YE banks and braes o' bonnie Doon, Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird That sings upon the bough; Thou minds me o' the happy days When my fause Luve was true. Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird THE lover of her body said: "She is more beautiful than night - But like the kisses of the dead Is my despair and my delight." The lover of her soul replied: “She is more wonderful than death,— But bitter as the aching tide Is all the speech of love she saith." The Vampire The lover of her body said: "To know one secret of her heart, For all the joy that I have had, Is past the reach of all my art." The lover of her soul replied: "The secrets of her heart are mine,— Save how she lives, a riven bride, Between the dust and the divine." The lover of her body sware: "Though she should hate me, wit you well, Rather than yield one kiss of her I give my soul to burn in hell.” The lover of her soul cried out: "Rather than leave her to your greed, I would that I were walled about 1027 With death, and death were death indeed!" The lover of her body wept, And got no good of all his gain, The lover of her soul went mad, But when he did himself to death, Despite of all the woe he had, He smiled as one who vanquisheth. Richard Hovey [1864-1900] THE VAMPIRE AS SUGGESTED BY THE PAINTING BY PHILIP BURNE-JONES A FOOL there was and he made his prayer (Even as you and I!) To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair (We called her the woman who did not care), But the fool he called her his lady fair (Even as you and I!) Oh the years we waste and the tears we waste, Belong to the woman who did not know A fool there was and his goods he spent (Even as you and I!) Honor and faith and a sure intent (And it wasn't the least what the lady meant), Oh the toil we lost and the spoil we lost, The fool was stripped to his foolish hide (Even as you and I!) Which she might have seen when she threw him aside,— (But it isn't on record the lady tried) So some of him lived but the most of him died— (Even as you and I!) And it isn't the shame and it isn't the blame It's coming to know that she never knew why And never could understand. Rudyard Kipling [1865 AGATHA SHE wanders in the April woods, That glisten with the fallen shower; She leans her face against the buds, She stops, she stoops, she plucks a flower. She feels the ferment of the hour: "A Rose Will Fade" She broodeth when the ringdove broods; As o'er her senses warmly steal Along the summer woodlands wide And still she haunts those woodland ways, Are sodden trunk and songless bough. With grief too fixed for woe or tear; Alfred Austin [1835 "A ROSE WILL FADE" You were always a dreamer, Rose-red Rose, As you swung on your perfumed spray, Swinging, and all the world was true, A rose will fade in a day. 1029 Why did you smile to his face, red Rose, A rose will bloom in a day. I gather your petals, Rose-red Rose, Dora Sigerson Shorter [18 AFFAIRE D'AMOUR ONE pale November day And growing bolder, O'er rosy shoulder Threw her lover such a glance That Autumn's heart began to dance. (O happy lover!) A leafless peach-tree bold Thought for him she smiled, I'm told; And, stirred by love, His sleeping sap did move, Decking each naked branch with green But Summer, laughing fled, Nor knew he loved her! 'Tis said The peach-tree sighed, And soon he gladly died: And Autumn, weary of the chase, Came on at Winter's sober pace (O careless lover!) Margaret Deland (1857 |