Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/295

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APPEAL.
207
By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.

But none of all this beauty
Which floods the earth and air
Is unto me the secret
Which makes September fair,

'T is a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget.


APPEAL.
"O LOVE, whom I so love, in this sore strait
Of thine, fall not! Below thy very feet
I kneel, so much I reverence thee, so sweet
It is to every pulse of mine to wait
Thy lightest pleasure, and to bind my fate
To thine by humblest service. Incomplete
All heaven, Love, if there thou dost not greet
Me, with perpetual need which I can sate,
I and no other! So I dare to pray
To thee this prayer. It is not wholly prayer.
The solemn worships of the ages lay
Even on God a solemn bond. I dare,—
Thy worshipper, thy lowly, loving mate,—
I dare to say, O Love, thou must be great!"