Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems/My Bonny Kate
MY BONNY KATE!
The sultry sun with angry eye,
Gleams from the lurid summer sky,
Through all the veins of red July,
My bonny Kate!
So, very sad and very lone,
I sit beside the window stone
Musing on months forever flown,
My bonny Kate!
This very day, one year ago,
I roamed where Charleston fronts the foe,
And loved, but did not tell you so,
It was my fate.
But soon I sought your eager eyes
And answered all their glad surprise
With love that falters not nor dies,
My bonny Kate!
You must remember times so bright
When every pulse thrilled through with light,
Watching the sweet morn’s silver flight,
My bonny Kate!
That evening in the country town,
The morning ride, up hill and down,
The spring, where Eros won his crown,
My bonny Kate!
We parted, ’twas the first sharp pain,
We met and parted once again—
It seemed as though our love were vain,
So long to wait!
I strove to bring the world to bay,
From early dawn to twilight grey.
The promised land loomed far away,
My bonny Kate!
Thus garnered, in that sacred past,
My love has grown superb and vast,
Each day sublimer than the last,
My bonny Kate!
My heart is full and yet I know,
To-morrow it will overflow,
Forever yours, for weal or woe,
My bonny Kate!
Then, darling, think what pangs assail
Your lover’s triple vest of mail,
Dreaming that even you might fail,
Your last year’s mate.
Another sits where you have been,
With you another walks the green
And tender words have passed between,
My bonny Kate!
A few short weeks, and I may be
Dashing along the hostile sea,
Winning the gold that ransoms thee,
My bonny Kate!
To God I yield the doubt—to you
I give my solemn troth anew,
My love, my faithful and my true—
My bonny Kate!