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Voice on the Wind, and Other Poems

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<h2>UNDER THE ROSE</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> He told a story to her, A story old yet new— And was it of the Faëry Folk That dance along the dew? </div> <div class="stanza"> The night was hung with silence As a room is hung with cloth, And soundless, through the rose-sweet hush, Swooned dim the down-white moth. </div> <div class="stanza"> Along the east a shimmer, A tenuous breath of flame, From which, as from a bath of light, Nymph-like, the girl-moon came. </div> <div class="stanza"> And pendent in the purple Of heaven, like fireflies, Bubbles of gold the great stars blew From windows of the skies. </div> <div class="stanza"> He told a story to her, A story full of dreams— And was it of the Elfin things That haunt the thin moonbeams? </div> <div class="stanza"> [Pg 49] Upon the hill a thorn-tree, Crooked and gnarled and gray, Against the moon seemed some crutch'd hag Dragging a child away. </div> <div class="stanza"> And in the vale a runnel, That dripped from shelf to shelf, Seemed, in the night, a woodland witch Who muttered to herself. </div> <div class="stanza"> Along the land a zephyr, Whose breath was wild perfume, That seemed a sorceress who wove Sweet spells of beam and bloom. </div> <div class="stanza"> He told a story to her, A story young yet old— And was it of the mystic things Men's eyes shall ne'er behold? </div> <div class="stanza"> They heard the dew drip faintly From out the green-cupped leaf; They heard the petals of the rose Unfolding from their sheaf. </div> <div class="stanza"> They saw the wind light-footing The waters into sheen; They saw the starlight kiss to sleep The blossoms on the green. </div> <div class="stanza"> [Pg 50] They heard and saw these wonders; These things they saw and heard; And other things within the heart For which there is no word. </div> <div class="stanza"> He told a story to her, The story men call Love, Whose echoes fill the ages past, And the world ne'er tires of. </div> </div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> [Pg 51] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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