I heard them sometimes talk of my grandmother
Long dead—a tender creature April-souled
For play and laughter meant, who feared the silence
And gloom as flowers fear the winter cold.
Long dead—a tender creature April-souled
For play and laughter meant, who feared the silence
And gloom as flowers fear the winter cold.
They said "Poor thing, she never had her girlhood,
Scarcely sixteen when she became a bride,
And then the children came so close together
Till when the youngest one was born she died."
Scarcely sixteen when she became a bride,
And then the children came so close together
Till when the youngest one was born she died."
To me she was a myth I rarely thought of,
Unreal, for all grandmothers that I knew
Were wrinkled white-haired ladies. So the time passed,
And I was rather sad and lonely too
Unreal, for all grandmothers that I knew
Were wrinkled white-haired ladies. So the time passed,
And I was rather sad and lonely too
Until one day at sunset I was going
To fetch the croquet things off from the green
And where the maples cast their deepest shadow
I met a girl I ne'er before had seen.
To fetch the croquet things off from the green
And where the maples cast their deepest shadow
I met a girl I ne'er before had seen.
And she was very tall and very slender,
With quaintly snooded locks of darkest brown,
Beneath arched brows her eyes shone golden-hazel,
She wore a crocus-tinted muslin gown
With quaintly snooded locks of darkest brown,
Beneath arched brows her eyes shone golden-hazel,
She wore a crocus-tinted muslin gown
And gathered high above her dainty ankles,
Provokingly, a seashell gleam of flesh
I glimpsed between the narrow, silken ribbons
Criss-crossed upon her stockings' snowy mesh.
Provokingly, a seashell gleam of flesh
I glimpsed between the narrow, silken ribbons
Criss-crossed upon her stockings' snowy mesh.
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