FROM HOUSE TO HOME.
277
"To-morrow," once I said to him with smiles:
"To-night," he answered gravely and was dumb,
But pointed out the stones that numbered miles
And miles and miles to come.
"To-night," he answered gravely and was dumb,
But pointed out the stones that numbered miles
And miles and miles to come.
"Not so," I said: "to-morrow shall be sweet:
To-night is not so sweet as coming days."
Then first I saw that he had turned his feet,
Had turned from me his face:
To-night is not so sweet as coming days."
Then first I saw that he had turned his feet,
Had turned from me his face:
Running and flying miles and miles he went,
But once looked back to beckon with his hand
And cry: "Come home, O love, from banishment:
Come to the distant land."
But once looked back to beckon with his hand
And cry: "Come home, O love, from banishment:
Come to the distant land."
That night destroyed me like an avalanche
One night turned all my summer back to snow
Next morning not a bird upon my branch,
Not a lamb woke below,—
One night turned all my summer back to snow
Next morning not a bird upon my branch,
Not a lamb woke below,—
No bird, no lamb, no living breathing thing;
No squirrel scampered on my breezy lawn,
No mouse lodged by his hoard: all joys took wing
And fled before that dawn.
No squirrel scampered on my breezy lawn,
No mouse lodged by his hoard: all joys took wing
And fled before that dawn.
Azure and sun were starved from heaven above,
No dew had fallen, but biting frost lay hoar:
O love, I knew that I should meet my love,
Should find my love no more.
No dew had fallen, but biting frost lay hoar:
O love, I knew that I should meet my love,
Should find my love no more.
