Opals (Custance)/Sunshine

by Olive Custance

Sunshine

 

Oh, Sunshine Spirit, I have seenYour gold wings spread aslant the green;Have watched their splendours trail alongThe woodland ways where wild flowers throng,And seen your slim feet slip between;

Looked on your limbs so shimmerous white,Flushed in a lucent mist of light;Seen your child face peer wildly fairThrough parted strands of shining hair,And wist not if I saw aright!

In gardens where tired feet can wadeThrough flowers set thick in slumbrous shade—Across wide languorous lawns sun-swept,Your fleeting fairy form has creptBetween the shadows unafraid. . . ..Because your subtle smile had caughtMy soul in tangled trance of thought—Your sweet hushed speech I strove to hear,You seemed to sway so strangely near . . .Sun-Vision, was it I you sought?

A mortal maid, whose heart is yetToo full of all the world's vain fret—The mournful music of this Star—That you who have been born afarHear only faintly—and forget. . . .

Stay, Sweet! beneath these sighing trees,Whose lace-like shadow broideriesDapple your dainty loveliness. . . .Are you a dream? I cannot guess . . .God's earth is full of mysteries. . . .