The Sun Dial: a Cycle of Love Songs of the Open Road

The morning wind is wooing me;
Her lips have swept my brow.
Was ever dawn so sweet before?
The land so fair as now?

The wanderlust is luring
To wherever roads may lead,
While yet the dew is on the hedge;
So how can I but heed?

The forest whispers of its shade;
Of haunts where we have been,
And where may friends be better made
Than under God’s green inn?

Your mouth is warm and laughing,
And your voice is calling low,
While yet the dew is on the hedge;
So how can I but go?

The bees are humming, humming in the clover;
  The bobolink is singing in the rye;
The brook is purling, purling in the valley,
  And the river's laughing, radiant, to the sky.

The buttercups are nodding in the sunlight;
  The wind is whisp'ring, whisp'ring to the pine;
The joy of June has found me, as an aureole it's crowned me
  Because, oh best belovèd, you are mine!

In Arcady, by moonlight, (where only lovers go,)
  There is a pool, where fairest of all the roses grow.
Why are the moonlit roses so sweet beyond compare?
  Among their purple shadows my love is waiting there.

To Arcady by moonlight the paths are open wide!
  But only joy can enter, and only joy abide;
There is the peace unending, that perfect faith can know,
  In Arcady by moonlight, where only lovers go.

The roads wind over the plain, my lass,
The roads sweep over the hills!
As I swing along with a careless song
Wherever the spirit wills.

For ever the heart of youth is glad,
And ever the world is new,
And ever the roads lure on, my lass,
For all of them lead to you.

So I sing my song on the heart’s highway,
And ever my song is love;
But anon I rest on my journey’s quest
To gather the flow’rs thereof.

For ever the shadows trail the sun,
As rosemary trails the rue;
And ever the roads lure on, my lass,
For ever they lead to you!
So the songs I sing on the heart’s highway
Are ever of love for you!