Six Songs , opus 10

She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm in the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek...;
She sat, like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.

The clover blossoms kiss her feet,
She is so sweet!
While I who may not kiss her hand
Bless all the wild flowers in the land.
 
Soft sunshine falls across her breast,
She is so blest!
I'm jealous of its arms of gold,
Oh, that these arms her from might fold!
 
Gently the breezes kiss her hair,
She is so fair!
Let flowers and sun and breeze go by,
O dearest love, or I die!

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearl'd;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven --
All's right with the world!

At break of day fresh beauty gilds the bowers,
And Phoebus joys at light's return;
The birds sing love from nests amid the flowers.
All things in nature with its gladness burn.

At break of day oft times comes bitter sorrow,
That night's dark hours should ever fade
To burning swain who, with the opening morrow,
Must leave his own beloved maid.

The rose and the lily, the sunshine and dove,
I loved them all once with a rapturous love;
I love them no more, I love one alone,
The little one, dainty one, pure one, my own;
She herself, the source of all love,
Is sunshine, rose and lily and dove.

The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
And the day and the night are the same as one;
The year grows green and the year grows brown,
And what is it all when all is done?
Grains of sombre or shining sand,
Sliding into and out of hand.

And men go down in ships to the sea,
And a thousand ships are the same as one;
And backward and forward blows the breeze,
And what is it all when all is done?
A tide with never a shore in sight,
setting steadily on towards night.

The fisherman droppeth his net in the stream,
And a hundred streams are the same as one;
The maiden dreameth her love-lit dream,
And what is it all when all is done?
The fisher's net the burden breaks,
And after the dreaming the dreamer awakes!