| Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915). Yale Book of American Verse. 1912. |
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| Richard Hovey. 1864–1900 |
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| 246. Launa Dee |
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| WEARY, oh, so weary | |
| With it all! | |
| Sunny days or dreary— | |
| How they pall! | |
| Why should we be heroes, | 5 |
| Launa Dee, | |
| Striving to no winning? | |
| Let the world be Zero's! | |
| As in the beginning | |
| Let it be. | 10 |
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| What good comes of toiling, | |
| When all 's done? | |
| Frail green sprays for spoiling | |
| Of the sun; | |
| Laurel leaf or myrtle, | 15 |
| Love or fame— | |
| Ah, what odds what spray, sweet? | |
| Time, that makes life fertile, | |
| Makes its blooms decay, sweet, | |
| As they came. | 20 |
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| Lie here with me dreaming, | |
| Cheek to cheek, | |
| Lithe limbs twined and gleaming, | |
| Brown and sleek; | |
| Like two serpents coiling | 25 |
| In their lair. | |
| Where 's the good of wreathing | |
| Sprays for Time's despoiling? | |
| Let me feel your breathing | |
| In my hair. | 30 |
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| You and I together— | |
| Was it so? | |
| In the August weather | |
| Long ago! | |
| Did we kiss and fellow, | 35 |
| Side by side, | |
| Till the sunbeams quickened | |
| From our stalks great yellow | |
| Sunflowers, till we sickened | |
| There and died? | 40 |
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| Were we tigers creeping | |
| Through the glade | |
| Where our prey lay sleeping, | |
| Unafraid, | |
| In some Eastern jungle? | 45 |
| Better so. | |
| I am sure the snarling | |
| Beasts could never bungle | |
| Life as men do, darling, | |
| Who half know. | 50 |
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| Ah, if all of life, love, | |
| Were the living! | |
| Just to cease from strife, love, | |
| And from grieving; | |
| Let the swift world pass us, | 55 |
| You and me, | |
| Stilled from all aspiring,— | |
| Sinai nor Parnassus | |
| Longer worth desiring, | |
| Launa Dee! | 60 |
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| Just to live like lilies | |
| In the lake! | |
| Where no thought nor will is, | |
| To mistake! | |
| Just to lose the human | 65 |
| Eyes that weep! | |
| Just to cease from seeming | |
| Longer man and woman! | |
| Just to reach the dreaming | |
| And the sleep! | 70 |
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