Rainbows (Custance)/Ritornello
For works with similar titles, see Ritornello.
Ritornello
Against the wide clear windows of your mindMy songs continually rush and beatLike circling swallows in the summer days,And with bound eyes, for Love has made them blind,They sing in darkness of your beauty, Sweet,And chant in shadow your perpetual praise.
And yet it is not love that makes them sad,But Sorrow that stands ever by DelightWith bruised white blossoms in her weary hands,Love tells her all his secrets mad and glad, And she, with languid lips and eyes like night,Listens . . . and whispers back and understands.
Oh, friend gone far away, my restless songsCrave ever for the hour of your return.At Hope's dim doors their silent wings flash white,And when bright Day puts off earth's crown of wrongsAnd darkness draws Life dreamward, still they yearnToward you in Sleep's fairy-lands all night.