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INDECISION.

Just the old, old story
Of light and shade,

Love like the opal tender,
Like it may be to vary-

May be to fade.

Just the old tender story,

Just a glimpse of morning glory
In an earthly Paradise,
With shadowy reflections

In a pair of sweet brown eyes,

Brown eyes a man might well
Be proud to win!
Open to hold his image,
Shut under silken lashes,
Only to shut him in.
O glad eyes, look together,
For life's dark, stormy weather
Grows to a fairer thing
When young eyes look upon it

Through a slender wedding ring.

169

R. D. BLACKMORE.

INDECISION.

Do I love her?

Dimpling red lips at me pouting,
Dimpling shoulders at me flouting;
No, I don't!

Do I love her?

Prisoned in those crystal eyes
Purity forever lies;

Yes, I do!

Do I love her?

Little wild and willful fiction,
Teasing, torturing contradiction;
No, I don't!

Do I love her?

With kind acts and sweet words she
Aids and comforts poverty.

Yes, I do!

Do I love her?

Quick she puts her cuirass on,
Stabs with laughter, stings with scorn;
No, I don't!

Do I love her?

No. Then to my arms she flies,
Filling me with glad surprise;
Ah, yes I do!

ANONYMOUS.

A KISS IN THE RAIN.

One stormy morn I chanced to meet

A lassie in the town;

Her locks were like the ripened wheat, Her laughing eyes were brown.

THE FRIVOLOUS GIRL.

I watched her, as she tripped along,
Till madness filled my brain,

171

And then-and then-I knew 'twas wrong-

I kissed her in the rain.

With rain-drops shining on her cheek,

Like dew-drops on a rose,

The little lassie strove to speak,

My boldness to oppose;

She strove in vain, and, quivering,

Her finger stole in mine;

And then the birds began to sing,
The sun began to shine.

Oh, let the clouds grow dark above,
My heart is light below;

"Tis always summer when we love,
However winds may blow;

And I'm proud as any prince,
All honors I disdain;

She says I am her rain-beau since

I kissed her in the rain.

ANONYMOUS.

THE FRIVOLOUS GIRL.

Her eyes were bright and merry,
She danced in the mazy whirl;
She took the world in its sunshine,
For she was a frivolous girl.

She dressed like a royal princess,
She wore her hair in a curl;
The gossips said, "What a pity
That she's such a frivolous girl!"

Twenty years later.

She's a wife, a mother, a woman,
Grand, noble, and pure as a pearl;
While the gossips say, "Would you think it,
Of only a frivolous girl?"

FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, AND TRUTH.

Friendship doth bind with pleasant ties,
The heart of man, and age

But strengthens it-it never dies
Till finished is life's final page.

Love is the sacred link which binds

Hearts joined by friendship firmer still;

Who once has felt it, in it finds

Joys which his soul with pleasure fill.

Truth only can complete the chain,
Its links enduring strength can give;
With this unbroken 'twill remain

While e'er the human soul shall live.
ANONYMOUS.

A SONG FOR THE GIRL I LOVE. 173

THE SILENCE OF LOVE.

I hold that we are wrong to seek
To put in words our deepest thought;
The purer things by Nature taught
Are turned to coarser when we speak.
The flower whose perfume charms the sense
Grows hard and common to the touch,
And love that's wordy overmuch
Is marred by its experience;

For love, like sympathy, hath bands
More strong in silence than in speech,
And hearts speak loudest, each to each,
Through meeting lips and clasp of hands.
Nor could I hope for fitting word

To form in speech the thoughts that start;
The inner core of every heart

Hath yearnings that are never heard.

ANONYMOUS.

A SONG FOR THE GIRL I LOVE.

A song for the girl I love—

God love her!

A song for the eyes that tender shine,
And the fragrant mouth that melts on mine,
The shimmering tresses uncontrolled

That clasp her neck with tendrils of gold;

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