"… The beauty of all adventurous and daring persons,
The beauty of wood-boys and wood-men, with their clear untrimmed
"… I sit by the restless all the dark night; some are so young,
Some suffer so much? I recall the experiences sweet and sad.
Many a soldier's loving arms about this neck have crossed and rested,
Many a soldier's kiss dwells on these bearded lips."
"… One turns to me his appealing eyes—poor boy, I never knew you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that
"Armed regiments arrive everyday, pass through the city, and embark
from the wharves.
How good they look as they tramp down to the river, sweaty, with
their guns on their shoulders!
How I love them! How I could hug them!—with their brown faces,
and their clothes and knapsacks covered with dust."
"Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poet.
I whisper with my lips close to your ear,
"I have loved many women and men—but I love none better than you."
"What is it I interchange so suddenly with strangers?
What with some driver, as I ride on the seat by his side?
What with some fisherman, drawing his seine by the shore, as I
"Are you the new person drawn toward me?…
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
"Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?"
"I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing.
All alone it stood, and the moss hung down from its branches.
Without any companion it stood there, uttering joyous leaves of green.
But I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves, standing alone there,
Without its friend near; for I know I could not.
And I broke off a twig … and brought it away …
Yet it remains to me, a curious token, it makes me think of manly love:
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana,
solitary, in a wide, flat space,
— 379 —
