NO AND YES. OF I could choose my paradise, And please myself with choice of bliss, Then I would have your soft blue eyes And rosy little mouth to kiss ; Your lips, as smooth and tender, child, As rose-leaves in a coppice wild. If fate bade choose some sweet unrest, And weep amid those tresses, child, Contented to be thus beguiled. THOMAS ASHE. VE within the lover's breast Burns like Hesper in the West, Till the day and night are done; Then when dawn drives up his car- Love thy love pours down on mine As the snow rill on the vale, As the salt breeze on the sail ; As the song unto the bird On my lips thy name is heard. As a dewdrop on the rose GEORGE MEREDITH. IKE an island in a river, Art thou, my love, to me; And I journey by thee ever I arise to fall before thee, I come to kiss thy feet; And thy love hath power upon me, For the loveliness which won me, And my life it beautifieth PHILIP JAMES BAILEY. THE TREASURE-SHIP. Y heart is freighted full of love, With gems below and gems above, Full strings of nature's beaded pearl, Hath fashioned out mechanic-wise, But all made up of thy blue eyes. And girdles wove of subtle sound, In Paradise, the primal pair, Before Love's art and niceness were. And carcanets of living sighs; Gems that have dropped from Love's own stem, And one small jewel that I prize |