The Two Twilights - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
_Second Student:_
I like the canary better; Look, how he swells his throttle!
He gurgles like musical water That dances and sings in a bottle.
ABOVE.
_Second Mason:_
D'ye mind the students down in the grove Drinking their wine and beer?
That's an easy life they lead.
_First Mason:_
So do we up here When the weatherc.o.c.k points west And the look-off's clear.
_Third Mason:_
House-top Jim's the boy for work!
_First Mason:_
True for you, my dear.
(_Whistles "The Girl I Left Behind me."_)
BELOW.
_First Student:_
See the Dutchmen on those settees: Isn't it like the Rhine?
And the old church-tower up over the trees-- Kellner! Noch ein Stein!
_Third Student:_
I'd like to work with those masons there Half way up the sky.
The air is sweet where the pigeons build, And the world is all in their eye.
_Second Student:_
But "Love is of the valley:" the Gretchen and the Kellner Haunt the cheerful levels of the lower story.
Glory in the garret--comfort in the cellar: I will keep the comfort--you may take the glory.
ABOVE.
_First Mason:_
Look up at the pointers: they 're drawing close together; 'T is here we get the earliest news of sun, and moon, and weather; We can hear time's pulse a-ticking, with the whistling weatherc.o.c.k.
Drop your mortar-boards, my lads, it's coming twelve o'clock.
_Third Mason:_
Oh! it's hungry that I am with working in the wind, But there's a shawl and bonnet--below there: do you mind?
It's Molly with the dinner-pail: she's coming in the door.
Faith, my belly thinks my throat is cut this half an hour and more.
(_The church clock strikes the noon._)
A MEMORY
I came across the marsh to-night, And though the wind was cold, I stayed a moment on the bridge To note the paly gold
That lingered on the darkening bay; The creek which ran below Was frozen dumb; the dreary flats Were overspread with snow.
The college bell began to ring, And as the north wind blew Its distant janglings out to sea, I thought, dear Friend, of you;
And how one warm September day, While yet the woods were green, We strayed across the happy hills And this wide marsh between.
The hay-stacks dotted here and there The water-meadows wide: The even lines of sluices black Were filling with the tide.
Then this salt stream, now winter bound, Fled softly through the sedge, Retreating from the sparkling Sound; And there along its edge
We strolled, and marked the far-off sloops, And watched the cattle graze.
O'erhead the swallows rushed in troops, While bright with purple haze,
West Rock looked down the winding plain-- Ah! this was long ago; The summer's gone, and you are gone, As everything must go.
AMOURS Pa.s.sAGeRES
Light loves and soon forgotten hates, Heat-lightnings of the brooding summer sky-- Ye too bred of the summer's heat, Ye too, like summer, fleet-- Ye have gone by.
Walks in the woods and whispers over gates, Gay rivalries of tennis and croquet-- Gone with the summer sweet, Gone with the swallow fleet Southward away!
Breath of the rose, laughter of maids Kissed into silence by the setting moon; Wind of the morn that wakes and blows, And hastening night that goes Too soon--too soon!
Meetings and partings, tokens, serenades, Tears--idle tears--and coy denials vain; Flower of the summer's rose, Say, will your leaves unclose Ever again?
ON A MINIATURE
Thine old-world eyes--each one a violet Big as the baby rose that is thy mouth-- Set me a dreaming. Have our eyes not met In childhood--in a garden of the South?
Thy lips are trembling with a song of France, My cousin, and thine eyes are dimly sweet; 'Wildered with reading in an old romance All afternoon upon the garden seat.
