Poems

They stand and bark like foolish dogs, “O notice us! O notice us!” And then they stand and whine.... As if to say, “The good kind God That made the world made even us, All in the scheme divine.” And then they bark like foolish dogs, And then they stand and whine.

Awhile I felt the imperial sky Clothe a sole figure, which was I; Then, lonely for democracy, I hailed the purple robe of air Kinship for all mankind to share; But now at last, with ashen hair, I learn it is not they nor I Who own the mantle of the sky,— Silence alone wears majesty.

Here shall come forth a flower and near him ever grow. But his ear heeds me not, and my hot tears mean nothing to him who was dearer to me than Daphne, he whose clear eye, that dazed the sun, now droops near earth.... O hyacinthine flower, grow here! Sweet were his lips as a flower touching the feet of a bee in Spring, his lips would repeat the word, “Love, love,” all that was sweet in the world was reborn. Death could not defeat him, for his young lips, completing love, were eager. His youth shall ever be fleet, evading death.... O hyacinthine flower, be sweet!