The sun and the wind are akin to you, As you are akin to June. But the fiddle! . . . It giggles and twitters about, And, love and laughter! who gave him the cue?— He’s playing your favourite tune. 1875 XVI WHILE the west is paling Starshine is begun. While the dusk is failing Glimmers up the sun. So, till darkness cover Life’s retreating gleam, Lover follows lover, Dream succeeds to dream. Stoop to my endeavour, O my love, and be Only and for ever Sun and stars to me. 1876 XVII THE sands are alive with sunshine, The bathers lounge and throng, And out in the bay a bugle Is lilting a gallant song. The clouds go racing eastward, The blithe wind cannot rest, And a shard on the shingle flashes Like the shining soul of a jest; While children romp in the surges, And sweethearts wander free, And the Firth as with laughter dimples . . . I would it were deep over me! 1875 XVIII _To_ A. D. THE nightingale has a lyre of gold, The lark’s is a clarion-call, And the blackbird plays but a boxwood flute, But I love him best of all. For his song is all of the joy of life, And we in the mad, spring weather, We two have listened till he sang Our hearts and lips together. 1876 XIX YOUR heart has trembled to my tongue, Your hands in mine have lain, Your thought to me has leaned and clung, Again and yet again, My dear, Again and yet again. Now die the dream, or come the wife, The past is not in vain, For wholly as it was your life Can never be again, My dear, Can never be again. 1876 XX THE surges gushed and sounded, The blue was the blue of June, And low above the brightening east Floated a shred of moon. The woods were black and solemn, The night winds large and free, And in your thought a blessing seemed To fall on land and sea. 1877 XXI WE flash across the level. We thunder thro’ the bridges. We bicker down the cuttings. We sway along the ridges. A rush of streaming hedges, Of jostling lights and shadows, Of hurtling, hurrying stations, Of racing woods and meadows. We charge the tunnels headlong— The blackness roars and shatters. We crash between embankments— The open spins and scatters.