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.
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.
She saw the guest—her merry eye 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?
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.
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!
O strange it seems that faithful love 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.