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William
Forster

“THE LOVE IN HER EYES LAY SLEEPING”

  The love in her eyes lay sleeping,
  As stars that unconscious shine,
  Till, under the pink lids peeping,
  I wakened it up with mine;
And we pledged our troth to a brimming oath
  In a bumper of blood-red wine.
  Alas! too well I know
  That it happened long ago;
  Those memories yet remain,
  And sting, like throbs of pain,
  And I’m alone below,
But still the red wine warms, and the rosy goblets glow;
  If love be the heart’s enslaver,
  ’Tis wine that subdues the head.
  But which has the fairest flavour,
  And whose is the soonest shed?
  Wine waxes in power in that desolate hour
  When the glory of love is dead.
  Love lives on beauty’s ray,
  But night comes after day,
  And when the exhausted sun

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