I am sometimes impatient of my lot As being one who has not and can not Attain the perfectness he would espouse; My heart beats on the bars that are its vows-- My heart whose evil blossoms push their way Between the rocks of blind brutality And flaunt shamefacedly Their swarthy flow'rs in sinister array. My heart so false--so true--as change the years, My heart of very contradiction made-- Exaggerating heart where merge and shade Immensities of joy and startl'd fears. XVII That love within our eyes may be Uttered with all clarity; Oh, let us cleanse our looks from those That chose The way of life's brutality. The dawn has flowered in red and gold, Strange softened light And mist; It seems as though some tender down of gold And silver through the twilight kissed, With dim caresses, all our garden-ways; Our mysterious lake displays Its trembling sheen of golden light; Beneath the trees swoon birds in emerald flight; And dawn, from off the gloomy plain, the hillside steep, Doth sweep The last grey ashes of unwilling night. XVIII Mid-summer blooms within our quiet garden-ways; A golden peacock down the dusky alley strays; Gay flower petals strew --Pearl, emerald and blue-- The curving slopes of fragrant summer grass; The pools are clear as glass Between the white cups of the lily-flowers; The currants are like jewelled fairy-bowers; A dazzling insect worries the heart of a rose, Where a delicate fern a filmy shadow throws, And airy as bubbles the thousands of bees Over the young grape-clusters swarm as they please. The air is pearly, iridescent, pure; These profound and radiant noons mature, Unfolding even as odorous roses of clear light; Familiar roads to distances invite Like slow and graceful gestures, one by one Bound for the pearly-hued horizon and the sun. Surely the summer clothes, with all her arts, No other garden with such grace and power; And 'tis the poignant joy close-folded in our hearts That cries its life aloud from every flaming flower. XIX May thy dear eyes, thy clear eyes, be To me on earth The pledges of felicity. And may our kindled souls, in showers, Clothe with gold each flaming thought of ours. That my two hands against thy heart ne'er cease To be to thee on earth The emblem of all peace. And may we live as two lost prayers implore, One to the other yearning evermore. May our kisses be, on lips in strife, To us on earth The symbols of our life. XX