WITHOUT DISGUISE

  If I have erred in showing all my heart,
    And lost your favour by a lack of pride;
    If standing like a beggar at your side
  With naked feet, I have forgot the art
  Of those who bargain well in passion’s mart,
    And win the thing they want by what they hide;
    Be mine the fault as mine the hope denied,
  Be mine the lover’s and the loser’s part.

  The sin, if sin it was, I do repent,
    And take the penance on myself alone;
  Yet after I have borne the punishment,
    I shall not fear to stand before the throne
  Of Love with open heart, and make this plea: 
  “At least I have not lied to her nor Thee!”

AN HOUR

  You only promised me a single hour: 
    But in that hour I journeyed through a year
    Of life:  the joy of finding you,—­the fear
  Of losing you again,—­the sense of power
  To make you all my own,—­the sudden shower
    Of tears that came because you were more dear
    Than words could ever tell you,—­then,—­the clear
  Soft rapture when I plucked love’s crimson flower.

  An hour,—­a year,—­I felt your bosom rise
    And fall with mystic tides, and saw the gleam
  Of undiscovered stars within your eyes,—­
    A year,—­an hour?  I knew not, for the stream
  Of love had carried me to Paradise,
    Where all the forms of Time are like a dream.

“RAPPELLE-TOI”

Remember, when the timid light
Through the enchanted hall of dawn is gleaming;
Remember, when the pensive night
Beneath her silver-sprinkled veil walks dreaming;
When pleasure calls thee and thy heart beats high,
When tender joys through evening shades draw nigh,
Hark, from the woodland deeps
A gentle whisper creeps,
Remember!

Remember, when the hand of fate
My life from thine forevermore has parted;
When sorrow, exile, and the weight
Of lonely years have made me heavy-hearted;
Think of my loyal love, my last adieu;
Absence and time are naught, if we are true;
Long as my heart shall beat,
To thine it will repeat,
Remember!

Remember, when the cool, dark tomb
Receives my heart into its quiet keeping,
And some sweet flower begins to bloom
Above the grassy mound where I am sleeping;
Ah then, my face thou nevermore shalt see,
But still my soul will linger close to thee,
And in the holy place of night,
The litany of love recite,—­
Remember!

Freely rendered from the French of Alfred de Musset.

LOVE’S NEARNESS

I think of thee when golden sunbeams glimmer
Across the sea;
And when the waves reflect the moon’s pale shimmer
I think of thee.

I see thy form when down the distant highway
The dust-clouds rise;
In darkest night, above the mountain by-way
I see thine eyes.