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A SERENADE AT THE VILLA.

1.

THAT was I, you heard last night
When there rose no moon at all,
Nor, to pierce the strained and tight
Tent of heaven, a planet small :
Life was dead, and so was light.

2.

Not a twinkle from the fly,

Not a glimmer from the worm. When the crickets stopped their cry, When the owls forbore a term, You heard music; that was I.

3.

Earth turned in her sleep with pain,

Sultrily suspired for proof:

In at heaven and out again,

Lightning!-where it broke the roof, Bloodlike, some few drops of rain.

4.

What they could my words expressed,
O my love, my all, my one!
Singing helped the verses best,
And when singing's best was done,

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So wore night; the east was gray,

White the broad-faced hemlock flowers;

Soon would come another day;

Ere its first of heavy hours.

Found me, I had past away.

6.

What became of all the hopes,

Words and song and lute as well?

Say, this struck you

"When life gropes

Feebly for the path where fell

Light last on the evening slopes,

7.

"One friend in that path shall be
To secure my steps from wrong;
One to count night day for me,
Patient through the watches long,
Serving most with none to see."

Never say

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8.

as something bodes

"So the worst has yet a worse!

When life halts 'neath double loads,

Better the task-master's curse Than such music on the roads!

9.

"When no moon succeeds the sun,

Nor can pierce the midnight's tent Any star, the smallest one,

While some drops, where lightning went, Show the final storm begun

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10.

"When the fire-fly hides its spot,
When the garden-voices fail
In the darkness thick and hot,-
Shall another voice avail,

That shape be where those are not?

11.

"Has some plague a longer lease Proffering its help uncouth?

Can't one even die in peace?

As one shuts one's eyes on youth,

Is that face the last one sees?"

12.

Oh, how dark your villa was, Windows fast and obdurate! How the garden grudged me grass Where I stood -the iron gate

Ground its teeth to let me pass!

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They would fain see, too,

My star that dartles the red and the blue!

Then it stops like a bird,—like a flower, hangs furled;

They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it. What matter to me if their star is a world?

Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it.

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