In the evening, in the quiet Park, we walked together After so many and after so many years-- We walked again in the evening, in the warm May weather, After the partings and tears. And under the splendor, under the starry skies, We walked, without sound or sigh, in a calm unbroken; As the dead walk together in a long-lost Paradise-- Silent, with no word spoken. EXULTATION Before the dawn the very thought of you, That wakes me, as the morning wakes the night, Floods all my heart with most exultant joy. The thought of you that rises with the stars, When evening wheels all glittering through the dark, Floods all my heart with most exultant joy. O life and joy and breath and death of me, With every breath I draw you in like air! O I shall die of you, of you, of you! Though now you banish me forevermore, Never to look upon your face again-- Think you that I shall sorrow for my love? Though I shall lie upon my bed of death And know you have forgotten me forever-- Think you that I shall sorrow for my love? O life and joy and breath and death of me, I shall cry out exultant--and lie dead! O I shall die of you, of you, of you! O love, I love you better than you know! I love you as the water loves the sea. I love you as the twilight loves the dark. The trumpets of the morning, to my heart From shining towers blow the thought of you; The waves of evening flood my heart with you. O life and joy and breath and death of me, With every breath I draw you in like air! O I shall die of you, of you, of you! SONG OF SONGS My heart is like a shady grove That harbors, for a June, My thoughts, like song-birds mad with love Under the moon. On all the windy boughs they sit And in the blowing grass-- But one bird silently enters it, And sings, alas! Then all the rest grow sad and still That made a happy noise: There is no sound on all the hill But that one voice, Faint with the memories in his breast-- It is the thought of _you_-- And when it ceases, all the rest Are silent, too. SORROWFUL FREEDOM Long days I begged of my heart to be Released from a love that haunted me-- The memory of a last embrace, A tyrannous and a lovely face. “Free me,” I said, “from an old love, The memory and the might thereof-- Free to follow and take my fill Of beauty and laughter where I will.” Never a word my heart replied: But on a day the old love died; Vanished, never to come again, All the passion and all the pain. Come--we are free to take our fill Of beauty and laughter where we will-- O heart, are we free forevermore From the old sorrow we loved before! STARLESS MORNING Toward starless morning, when deep night had bowed On slumber’s pillow my unhappy head, Through the dim room it drifted like a cloud-- And swayed in silence by my lonely bed.