Cobalt, Jade, Amethyst ♀

I knew your soul would come, my love, 
To comfort mine in pain;
But I did not dream to see your face, 
Nor hear your voice again:
I only knelt to God and said, 
“From prayer I refrain.”
I dare not keep you here, my love; 
My knight must hold his place, 
With the noblest in the land must ride, 
And foremost in the race.
‘Tis his diviner self I love,
The strength that tempers grace.
Yet stoop from off your horse, my love, 
And kiss me on my cheek;
Let my head be lifted high, my love, 
‘Tis still beneath you meek.
Ride out, ere tears shall blind me, 
love; Good-bye, while I can speak.

All-conquering dragons! creep over the streets 
Which the city hath reared in the pride of her power;
Beslime them with ruin, befoul them with heats, 
Let them lie in the dust as the things of an hour.
All-conquering dragons! creep over the youths 
As they wrestle with Fate, and are vanquished and thrown;
With hissing facts and of palpable truths
Let the burden of life to their souls be made known.
All-conquering dragons! creep over the old; 
Let them loosen their grasp that hath strengthened their days;
Their wisdom die out, as a dream that is told, 
And the works of their lives turn to frivolous plays.
All-conquering dragon! creep over the dead; 
Let their honours fall from them, their memory die, 
Unsceptered the hand, uncrowned be the head, 
In the waters of Lethe unwept let them lie.
Is it nothing to you, all ye men that pass by?

We have travelled through the darkness, 
You and I for many days; 
Till we wondered at the sunshine, 
When at length we felt its rays.
Chill and lonely was the pathway, 
Only lighted by the snow, 
With the cutting east wind only 
To declare how we should go.
On our right, the frozen river, 
Where the drowned lay asleep’ 
On our left, the rocky mountain, so precipitously steep;
All around the gloomy shadows
Of the failures gone before; 
While the leafless branches whispered, 
We should do no less, no more.
We should falter and should stumble, 
And should fail to reach the end; 
And should die in the beginning - 
Die together, O my friend!
Die together? - ‘twas a jewel 
Which they threw us, for a stone: 
Come what might, we could remember 
That we should not be alone;
So with hands entwined the closer, 
We pressed on against the blast; 
And we bided for the daylight, 
And the daylight came at last.
First, the darkness grew to blackness, 
And we shivered in the cold; 
And we trembled, lest our fingers 
Should not keep their faithful hold;
Then a strange grey veil fell on us, - 
Was it darkness? was it light? 
And we questioned each, 
“What is it? Coming day, or coming night?”

Little eyes so softly wooing, 
Purely blind and purely wise; 
Knowing naught of evil doing, 
Knowing much of good, dear eyes: 
Shining on me, holy, sweet, 
Gentle thoughts your gaze should meet.
Little hands with restless motion 
Fluttering about my cheek; 
Little feet with swift commotion 
Rushing some new joy to seek: 
Bringing tidings fearlessly, 
Never doubting sympathy.
Little heart so swiftly gladdened, 
Little soul so soon cast down; 
Little lips with curves so saddened 
By a moment’s passing frown. 
Let me humbly kneel beside thee, 
Only God is fit to guide thee.

This world is all too sad for tears,
I would not weep, not I,
But smile along my life's short road,
Until I, smiling, die.

The little flowers breathe sweetness out
Through all the dewy night ;
Should I more churlish be than they,
And 'plain for constant light?

Not so, not so, no load of woe
Need bring despairing frown ;
For while we bear it, we can bear,
Past that, we lay it down.

Like the harmonies that struggle 
Through the fugueing of an air; 
Thus I heard them, broken fragments, 
From a music sweet and rare.
What the whole might be I know not; 
‘Tis but mine to tell the tale
As I heard it, softly falling, 
Through the twilight clear and pale.