IMPROMPTUS
"FROM LOVE TO LOVE"
(FOR A WEDDING)
From love to love she passes on this day;
Yet all the love she leaves with her doth stay;
Deep, deep, the new love, in her heart of hearts,
And the old love follows her when she departs:
So is she richer than she was before,
For of true love she hath a mightier store.
"I ASKED YOU TO READ MY POEM"
I asked you to read my poem, so shameless was I,
I not used such boon and service to ask;
This my excuse—when you hear, you will not deny
The prayer of the poet, who saw the soul through the mask.
The singer sails in a sea beyond sight or ken,
And he flings his plummet of song by night and by day;
With his poems he sounds the depths of the souls of men—
In your soul my song I flung to fathom the way.
NAZIMOVA
From every motion, every lovely line,
Breathe art and passion; music from those lips;
The tragic Orient from those lustrous eyes.
A WARRIOR OF TROY
Let other gray-beards mourn the flight of years,
