BECAUSE you cried, I kissed you, and, Ah me! how should I understand That piteous little you were fain To cry and to be kissed again?

Because you smiled at last, I thought That I had found what I had sought. But soon I found, without a doubt, No man can find a woman out.

I kissed your tears, and did not stay Till I had kissed them all away. Ah, hapless me! ah, heartless child! She would not kiss me when she smiled.

 

PERFUME.

SHAKE out your hair about me, so, That I may feel the stir and scent Of those vague odours come and go The way our kisses went.

Night gave this priceless hour of love, But now the dawn steals in apace, And amorously bends above The wonder of your face.

“Farewell” between our kisses creeps, You fade, a ghost, upon the air; Yet, ah! the vacant place still keeps The odour of your hair.

 

SOUVENIR.

HOW you haunt me with your eyes! Still that questioning persistence, Sad and sweet, across the distance Of the days of love and laughter, Those old days of love and lies.

Not reproaching, not reproving, Only, always, questioning, Those divinest eyes can bring Memories of certain summers, Nights of dreaming, days of loving,

When I loved you, when your kiss, Shyer than a bird to capture, Lit a sudden heaven of rapture; When we neither dreamt that either Could grow old in heart like this.

Do you still, in love’s December, Still remember, still regret That sweet unavailing debt? Ah, you haunt me, to remind me You remember, I forget!

 

TO MARY.

IF, Mary, that imperious face, And not in dreams alone, Come to this shadow-haunted place And claim dominion;

If, for your sake, I do unqueen Some well-remembered ghost, Forgetting much of what hath been Best loved, remembered most;

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