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I. LOVE me,—I love you, | |
| Love me, my baby; | |
| Sing it high, sing it low, | |
| Sing as it may be. | |
| |
| Mother’s arms under you, | 5 |
| Her eyes above you; | |
| Sing it high, sing it low, | |
| Love me,—I love you. | |
| |
II. Heartsease in my garden bed, | |
| With sweetwilliam white and red, | 10 |
| Honeysuckle on my wall:— | |
| Heartsease blossoms in my heart | |
| When sweet William comes to call, | |
| But it withers when we part, | |
| And the honey-trumpets fall. | 15 |
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III. What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow: | |
| What are brief? to-day and to-morrow: | |
| What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth: | |
| What are deep? the ocean and truth. | |
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IV. The days are clear, | 20 |
| Day after day, | |
| When April’s here, | |
| That leads to May | |
| And June | |
| Must follow soon: | 25 |
| Stay, June, stay!— | |
| If only we could stop the moon | |
| And June! | |
| |
V. Twist me a crown of wind-flowers; | |
| That I may fly away | 30 |
| To hear the singers at their song, | |
| And players at their play. | |
| |
| Put on your crown of wind-flowers: | |
| But whither would you go? | |
| Beyond the surging of the sea | 35 |
| And the storms that blow. | |
| |
| Alas! your crown of wind-flowers | |
| Can never make you fly: | |
| I twist them in a crown to-day, | |
| And to-night they die. | 40 |
| |
VI. I planted a hand | |
| And there came up a palm | |
| I planted a heart | |
| And there came up balm. | |
| |
| Then I planted a wish, | 45 |
| But there sprang a thorn, | |
| While heaven frowned with thunder | |
| And earth sighed forlorn. | |
| |
VII. Roses blushing red and white | |
| For delight; | 50 |
| Honeysuckle wreaths above, | |
| For love; | |
| Dim sweet-scented heliotrope, | |
| For hope; | |
| Shining lilies tall and straight, | 55 |
| For royal state; | |
| Dusky pansies, let them be | |
| For memory; | |
| With violets of fragrant breath, | |
| For death. | 60 |
| |
VIII. When a mounting skylark sings | |
| In the sunlit summer morn, | |
| I know that heaven is up on high, | |
| And on earth are fields of corn. | |
| |
| But when a nightingale sings | 65 |
| In the moonlit summer even, | |
| I know not if earth is merely earth, | |
| Only that heaven is heaven. | |
| |
IX. “Good bye in fear, good bye in sorrow, | |
| Good bye, and all in vain, | 70 |
| Never to meet again, my dear—” | |
| “Never to part again.” | |
| “Good bye to-day, good bye to-morrow, | |
| Good bye till earth shall wane, | |
| Never to meet again, my dear—” | 75 |
| “Never to part again.” | |
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