Heart Songs

<h2><SPAN name="VIOLET" id="VIOLET"></SPAN>Violet</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="letra">O</span> WRINKLED, withered little flower,<br/></span> <span class="i2">You were so pretty and so blue<br/></span> <span class="i0">The day that you were given me,<br/></span> <span class="i2">By Mariana, fair and true.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Angry and jealous had I been<br/></span> <span class="i2">That fragrant budding day in spring&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Strange, that a man should let his mind<br/></span> <span class="i2">Be vexed by some light simple thing!<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">She had gone walking with my friend,<br/></span> <span class="i2">A splendid fellow, with a face<br/></span> <span class="i0">As handsome as Apollo’s own,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And figure full of manly grace.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">And seeing that he gave to her<br/></span> <span class="i2">What seemed to me a tender gaze,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And that she was in happy mood,<br/></span> <span class="i2">My jealousy was all ablaze.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I called her traitor in my heart&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Was she not mine by every right?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Had I not held her to my breast,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And whispered things one starlight night?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I strode away to where the waves<br/></span> <span class="i2">Rushed on the beach with sullen roar,<br/></span> <span class="i0">She cared not for me, why should I<br/></span> <span class="i2">Think fondly of her any more?<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_105" id="page_105"></SPAN>{105}</span><br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Yet, when she softly called my name,<br/></span> <span class="i2">My heart beat quick with love and wrath,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And through the twilight soft and dim<br/></span> <span class="i2">I saw her coming down the path.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Then love was dumb, and anger spake,<br/></span> <span class="i2">The eyes of her grew proud and shy,<br/></span> <span class="i0">I called her heartless, and coquette&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i2">What but a jealous fool was I?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">She turned to leave me, then I grew<br/></span> <span class="i2">Ashamed of all my bitter speech,<br/></span> <span class="i0">But she seemed now so far from me,<br/></span> <span class="i2">I could not hope her grace to reach.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="ig">“Wait, Mariana, wait, and say<br/></span> <span class="i2">Farewell to one you hold in scorn!”<br/></span> <span class="i0">I cried, “and give to him I pray<br/></span> <span class="i2">One of the flowers you have worn.”<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">O, Violet, she lifted you<br/></span> <span class="i2">Up with her slender finger tips,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Laid you for one brief moment’s space<br/></span> <span class="i2">Against the redness of her lips.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Then gave you softly to my hand&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i2">O, Violet, so sweet and shy!<br/></span> <span class="i0">In all God’s universe there was<br/></span> <span class="i2">No happier man, I wot, than I.<br/></span></div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_106" id="page_106"></SPAN>{106}</span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />