Poems (Hinxman)/Discouraged Love
DISCOURAGED LOVE.
Ere yet she came, he heard her voice
So fresh, so kindly, and so gay,
It made the very house rejoice,
As a garden to the blackbird's lay.
So fresh, so kindly, and so gay,
It made the very house rejoice,
As a garden to the blackbird's lay.
And soon within the doorway smiled
The bright appearance of her face,
Where played the gladness of a child
New wedded to a girlish grace.
The bright appearance of her face,
Where played the gladness of a child
New wedded to a girlish grace.
She saw the guest—her merry eye
Its dancing liberties restrained,
A sudden frost of courtesy
Her voice, her look, her bearing chained.
Its dancing liberties restrained,
A sudden frost of courtesy
Her voice, her look, her bearing chained.
The heart that leapt to hear her come
Like a rash flower in winter fell;
Yet who within her happy home
So dearly prized her, loved so well?
Like a rash flower in winter fell;
Yet who within her happy home
So dearly prized her, loved so well?
Ah, could that eye, that voice, be won,
His home an Arcady would seem,
And he draw out beneath its sun
One bright, perpetual, peaceful dream.
His home an Arcady would seem,
And he draw out beneath its sun
One bright, perpetual, peaceful dream.
And he with love would wrap her round
As with a living air of balm,—
Sweet vision! smitten to the ground,
Beneath that blue eye's maiden-calm!
As with a living air of balm,—
Sweet vision! smitten to the ground,
Beneath that blue eye's maiden-calm!
O strange it seems that faithful love
Should send its tendrils forth in vain,
And gentle natures often prove
The ministers of sharpest pain!
Should send its tendrils forth in vain,
And gentle natures often prove
The ministers of sharpest pain!
But Time will some full answer show,
Time will some tear-sown harvest raise,
A light upon the place of woe
Shall backwards fall from after days.
Time will some tear-sown harvest raise,
A light upon the place of woe
Shall backwards fall from after days.