Yea, if need be, with dagger in hand,
Ere the fateful scenes are in action
Behind a suddenly-lifted curtain. . .
"Three Chants of To-day and To-morrow" (1905)
1. CITY.
City— —!
With our young dreams we have set foot within thee
Bewitched by the legend that hung in the gold of thy turrets,
Half foreboding thy beauty, thy marvellous life,
Whereof nurses told us tales, yonder afar, by the country-side.
Thou hast shown us thine unmatched countenance, us uptempted
Hast thou taken unto thine embraces and lulled with a smile.
What thou didst murmur to us on sluggish afternoons, was:
Mighty deceit, that slumbered in thine unbounded gaze.
Then while the countryside awoke to glittering mornings,
Then while peasants sowed grain into the dusky soil,
Then while through firmaments surged a deluge of mighty love,
