Heart Songs

<h2><SPAN name="O_LAST_DAYS_OF_THE_YEAR" id="O_LAST_DAYS_OF_THE_YEAR"></SPAN>O Last Days of the Year</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="ig">“O last days of the year!” she whispered low,<br/></span> <span class="i2">“You fly too swiftly past. Ah, you might stay<br/></span> <span class="i0">Awhile, a little while, do you not know<br/></span> <span class="i2">What tender things you bear with you away?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I’m thinking, sitting in the soft gloom here,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Of all the riches that were mine the day<br/></span> <span class="i0">There crept down on the world the soft new year,<br/></span> <span class="i2">A rosy thing with promise filled&mdash;and gay.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">But twelve short months ago! a little space<br/></span> <span class="i2">In which to lose so much&mdash;a whole life’s wealth<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of love and faith, youth, and youth’s tender grace&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Things that are wont to go from us by stealth.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Laughter and blushes, and the rapture strong,<br/></span> <span class="i2">The clasp of clinging hands, the burning kiss,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The joy of living, and the glorious song<br/></span> <span class="i2">That drew its sweetness from a full heart’s bliss.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_165" id="page_165"></SPAN>{165}</span><br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i8">O gladness great!<br/></span> <span class="i0">O wealth of tenderness!<br/></span> <span class="i2">That were my own one little year ago,<br/></span> <span class="i0">A bankrupt I&mdash;gone faith, gone warm caress,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Gone love, gone youth, gone <i>all</i>,”<br/></span> <span class="i12">She whispered low.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="ig">“O last days of the year!<br/></span> <span class="i12">You take away<br/></span> <span class="i2">The riches that I held so close and dear,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Go not so swiftly, stay a little&mdash;stay<br/></span> <span class="i2">With one poor bankrupt,<br/></span> <span class="i8">Last days of the year!”<br/></span></div> </div></div> <p class="c"><ANTIMG src="images/deco.png" width-obs="25" alt="[Decorative image unavailable.]" /></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />