Choose.
My tender thoughts go forth, beloved,1
Upon the pleasant morning hours,2
With songs of mated birds, and sighs3
From virgin hearts of opening flowers.4
Full-laden with love’s daintiest store,5
Each smallest thought should come to thee,6
As from the jasmine’s hidden cell7
Flies home the richly-burdened bee.8
My joyous thoughts go forth, beloved,9
Upon the golden airs of noon,10
With languid sweets from roses rare11
That flush and faint through ardent June.12
With all the swiftness of the streams,13
That fling out laughter as they run ;14
With all the brightness of the day,15
With all the passion of the sun.16
But when, along the cloud-hung west,17
The purple lights grow pale and die ;18
When waves of sunshine roll no more,19
And all one shade the cornfields lie ;20
When twilight veils the hills, and gives21
A deeper mystery to the sea ;22
Then, O beloved ! my saddened heart23
Yearns through the distance unto thee.24
And when the winds come o’er the sands,25
To sweep my lonely garden through,26
To bow the saintly lily’s head,27
And spill the violet’s cup of dew ;28
And when they higher mount, and beat29
The elm’s long arms against the eaves,30
Troubling the robin in its nest,31
And making tumult in the leaves ;32
Then, in the dusk, I seem to hear33
Strange sounds and whisperings of dread,34
And every murmur in the grass35
Seems some unfriendly spirit’s tread.36
I shrink within the shadowed porch ;37
A nameless fear oppresseth me ;38
And then my heart, like some lost child,39
Calls through the darkness unto thee !40
So, dear, of all my life of love,41
Choose thou the best and sweetest part :42
The glow of day, or gloom of night,43
The pride, or terror, of my heart ;44
The glad exultant hope, that fills45
The morning with its joyous strain ;46
Or twilight’s haunted loneliness,47
That stretches out its arms in vain.48
Would sigh or carol move thee most ?49
And were thy tenderest kiss bestowed50
On eyes that droop with tears, or lips51
With careless laughter overflowed ?52