Poems (Piatt)/Volume 1/From Two Windows
FROM TWO WINDOWS.
He was young—and he saw the South: The bird and the rose were there,And the god with the lifted look And the laurel in his hair.Before him a palace stood;— A shy wind moved the lace,And showed by the light of a dream A woman's wonderful face.
He was old—and he saw the North: The mountains were fierce and bare,And pitiless swords of ice 'Were thrust at him from the air.A ruin blackened the moon; And in that forlornest place,Wasted with famine and tears, Lo, a woman's dreadful face!