Page:Poems Cook.djvu/417

Like the rich hop-vine did you grow o'er me,
 Most beautiful to my enchanted view;
While I, poor fool! dreamt not that you could be
 Like that fair-seeming vine, as bitter, too.

I went on loving with unheeding zeal;
 Strong as a martyr, fervent as a saint.
The morning and the evening saw me kneel
 With prayers for you-prayers neither few nor faint.

At last, beneath your favourite cedar-tree,
 Where summer moons had often found us both,
I stammered forth that love-just as the sea
 May pour its might and depth in broken froth.

You laughed aloud! you laughed in scornful glee,
 Called me "vain boy," and bade a light farewell;
That laugh, like earthquake rumble,—could it be?
 It came again—and my heart's city fell.

'Tis over—and you shall not hear me sigh,
 Nor see a shadow steal upon my face;
The "vain boy" will not bow his head and die;
 Hope has departed—Pride must take its place.

Yet, Mabel Lee, I feel that you will cling
 About my future with a blighting power;
And, lady, it will be a bitter thing
 To bear my poison drop from such a flower.

Wide seas will be between us, years will pass;
 But years will fail in what they often do;
Time's misty breath will never dim the glass
 Where Passion, Truth, and Joy have mirrored you.

You've changed the "vain boy" to a grey, old man,
 The sapling has become a stricken tree;
Yet my Life's dream will end as it began,
 And find its first, last love, with Mabel Lee.

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