The Old Road to Paradise/Three Studies for a Portrait
THREE STUDIES FOR A PORTRAIT
1
OLD TALES
Her voice within the darkened room Tells on—old jests and tragedies And little follies of her kin And futile old nobilities:
". . . If they had only done," she tells, "The thing that others said was wise There would have been no death that year . . ." How fast her tiny shuttle flies!
The stiff old pictures on the wall, Who were those passionate girls and men So sure of Youth and Righteousness, Look dully on the Now from Then;
And I look past her out the glass Where young Today goes to and fro . . . But all she sees was past a change A changeless fifty years ago.
2
THE GRAY MASK
I wish I could not see her heart That is so passionate, so young, For all love-words are said for her, All love-songs sung:
Over light griefs her eyes grow wet, Over gay silks her eyes grow gay, She sighs, half-hopeful . . . "I forget My hair is gray—"
"I dreamed a lover came for me And courted me," she tells, "last night . . ."Ah, kind dream-lover, who could find Such tired eyes bright!
And yet . . . Perhaps some lad in heaven Some day shall clasp her soul, and know Unchanged, the little lass he left So long ago.
3
THE SEEKER
She was so full of restlessness, So ceaselessly went to and fro That it was hard for us to guess What thing she wished to find or know:
Only the gifts the gray years brought So fretted her on cheek and brow—Could it have been her youth she sought? . . . I hope that she has found it now.