A Year of Love
It was a year ago,1
Just when the twitt’ring swallows winged
their flight2
their flight2
To southern countries, one late autumn
night,3
night,3
Amid the primrose glow4
Of moonbeams on thin snow,5
The torch of love fell at my feet alight.6
I had not marked how fair7
Your face was, darling, till the northern
breeze8
breeze8
In sudden gust swept through the rust-
ling trees,9
ling trees,9
And laid your forehead bare10
Of clustered golden hair,11
And flushed your cheeks with kisses of
salt seas.12
salt seas.12
The months sped on their way,13
And early Spring beheld the snowdrops’
birth,14
birth,14
The lilies-of-the-valley, till the
earth15
earth15
Had doffed her cloak of grey,16
And ’neath the suns of May17
Bedeckt herself with rose-leaved crowns
of mirth.18
of mirth.18
And in the blithe sweet Spring,19
At dewy morn with all the world
aflower,20
aflower,20
I sought you, darling, in your wood-
land bower,21
land bower,21
Where, poised on Hope’s white wing,22
In joy I set the ring23
Upon your finger yielding to Love’s
power.24
power.24
This day in merry chime25
Our wedding-bells ring out across the
foam26
foam26
Of storm-vexed northern seas ; their
echoes roam27
echoes roam27
In solemn runic rhyme28
O’er fields of scented thyme29
That lend their fragrance to our moun-
tain home.30
tain home.30