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"Do I Love Thee?"

The burden of my heart, Maud,

There's little need to tell;
There's little need to say, Maud,

I've loved you long and well.
There's language in a sigh, Maud,
One's meaning to express,
And yours-was it for me, Maud?
O darling! tell me yes!

My eyes have told my love, Maud,
And on my burning cheek,
You've read the tender thought, Maud,
My lips refused to speak.

I gave you all my heart, Maud,

'Tis needless to confess;

And did you give me yours, Maud?
O darling! tell me yes!

"Tis sad to starve a love, Maud,

So worshipful and true;

I know a little cot, Maud,

Quite large enough for two; And you will be my wife, Maud? So may you ever bless

Through all your sunny life, Maud,

The day you answered yes!

651

John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)

"DO I LOVE THEE?"

Do I love thee? Ask the bee
If she loves the flowery lea,
Where the honeysuckle blows
And the fragrant clover grows.

As she answers, Yes or No,
Darling! take my answer so.

Do I love thee? Ask the bird
When her matin song is heard,

If she loves the sky so fair,
Fleecy cloud and liquid air.

As she answers, Yes or No,
Darling! take my answer so.

Do I love thee? Ask the flower
If she loves the vernal shower,
Or the kisses of the sun,

Or the dew, when day is done.
As she answers, Yes or No,
Darling! take my answer so.

John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887]

“O WORLD, BE NOBLER”

O WORLD, be nobler, for her sake!

If she but knew thee what thou art,

What wrongs are borne, what deeds are done

In thee, beneath thy daily sun,

Know'st thou not that her tender heart

For pain and very shame would break?

O World, be nobler, for her sake!

Laurence Binyon [1869

"IN THE DARK, IN THE DEW”

IN the dark, in the dew,

I am smiling back at you;

But you cannot see the smile,

And you're thinking all the while

How I turn my face from you,

In the dark, in the dew.

In the dark, in the dew,
All my love goes out to you,
Flutters like a bird in pain,
Dies and comes to life again;
While you whisper, "Sweetest, hark
Someone's sighing in the dark,
In the dark, in the dew!"

Nanny

In the dark, in the dew,

All my heart cries out to you,
As I cast it at your feet,

Sweet indeed, but not too sweet;
Wondering will you hear it beat,
Beat for you, and bleed for you,

In the dark, in the dew!

653

Mary Newmarch Prescott [1849-1888]

NANNY

Он, for an hour when the day is breaking,
Down by the shore where the tide is making,
Fair as a white cloud, thou, love, near me,
None but the waves and thyself to hear me!
Oh, to my breast how these arms would press thee!
Wildly my heart in its joy would bless thee!

Oh, how the soul thou has won would woo thee,

Girl of the snow neck, closer to me!

Oh, for an hour as the day advances,

Out where the breeze on the broom-bush dances,
Watching the lark, with the sun-ray o'er us,
Winging the notes of his Heaven-taught chorus!
Oh, to be there, and my love before me,
Soft as a moonbeam smiling o'er me!

Thou would'st but love, and I would woo thee,
Girl of the dark eye, closer to me!

Oh, for an hour where the sun first found us,
Out in the eve with its red sheets round us,
Brushing the dew from the gale's soft winglets,
Pearly and sweet, with thy long dark ringlets!
Oh, to be there on the sward beside thee,
Telling my tale, though I know you'd chide me!
Sweet were thy voice, though it should undo me,-
Girl of the dark locks, closer to me!

Oh, for an hour by night or by day, love,
Just as the Heavens and thou might say, love!

Far from the stare of the cold-eyed many,
Bound in the breath of my dove-souled Nanny!
Oh, for the pure chains that have bound me,
Warm from thy red lips circling round me!
Oh, in my soul, as the light above me,
Queen of the pure hearts, do I love thee!

Francis Davis [1810-1885]

A TRIFLE

I KNOW not why, but even to me
My songs seem sweet when read to thee.

Perhaps in this the pleasure lies---
I read my thoughts within thine eyes,

And so dare fancy that my art
May sink as deeply as thy heart.
Perhaps I love to make my words
Sing round thee like so many birds,

Or, maybe, they are only sweet
As they seem offerings at thy feet.

Or haply, Lily, when I speak,

I think, perchance, they touch thy cheek,

Or with a yet more precious bliss,
Die on thy red lips in a kiss.

Each reason here-I cannot tell-
Or all perhaps may solve the spell.

But if she watch when I am by,
Lily may deeper see than I.

Henry Timrod (1829-1867]

ROMANCE

I WILL make you brooches and toys for your delight

Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.
I will make a palace fit for you and me,

Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

"Or Ever the Knightly Years Were Gone" 655

I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,
Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,
And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white
In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,

Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

Robert Louis Stevenson [1850-1894]

"OR EVER THE KNIGHTLY YEARS WERE GONE"

OR ever the knightly years were gone

With the old world to the grave,

I was a King in Babylon

And you were a Christian Slave.

I saw, I took, I cast you by,

I bent and broke your pride.

You loved me well, or I heard them lie,
But your longing was denied.

Surely I knew that by and by

You cursed your gods and died.

And a myriad suns have set and shone
Since then upon the grave
Decreed by the King in Babylon
To her that had been his Slave.

The pride I trampled is now my scathe,
For it tramples me again.

The old resentment lasts like death,
For you love, yet you refrain.

I break my heart on your hard unfaith,
And I break my heart in vain.

Yet not for an hour do I wish undone
The deed beyond the grave,

When I was a King in Babylon
And you were a Virgin Slave.

William Ernest Henley [1849-1903]

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