Rainbows (Custance)/Pierrot
For other versions of this work, see Pierrot (Custance).
Pierrot
Pierrot, Pierrot, at first they said you slept,And then they told me you would never wake.I dared not think, I watched the white day break,The yellow lamps go out . . . I have not wept.
But now I kiss your dear cold hands and weep.Shaken with sobs I cower beside the bed,At last I realise that you are dead,Drawn suddenly into the arms of sleep.
Love! you will never look at me againWith those rain-coloured, heavy lidded eyes,Closed now forever. Pierrot, was it wiseTo love so madly since we loved in vain?
In vain! in vain! But Pierrot, it was sweetTo stem the stealthy hours with wine and song,Though Death stood up between us, stern and strong,And Fate twined nets to trip our dancing feet.
Too soon, alas! too soon our summer swoonedTo bitter winter, and against the laceOf tossed white pillows lay a reckless face,With feverish parched mouth like a red wound.
Yet still was our brave love not overthrownAnd I would nestle at your side and seeYour large sad eyes grow passionate for me,Love! wake and speak, I cannot live alone.
Blue as blue flame is the great sky above,The earth is wonderful and glad and green,But shut the sunlight out, for I have seenForgetfulness upon the face of love.