THE FIVE KISSES.
I.
_ AFTER CONFESSION.
AY startles the fawn from the avenues deep
that look to the east in the heart of the wood :
Light touches the trees of the hill with its lips, and
_ God is above them and sees they are good :
Night flings from her forehead the purple-black
hood.
The thicket is sweet with the breath of the breeze
made soft by the kisses of slumbering maids ;
The nymph and the satyr, the fair and the faulty
alike are the guests of these amorous shades ;
‘The hour of Love flickers and falters and fades.
Oh, listen, my love, to the song of the brook, its
murmurs and cadences, trills and low chords ;
Hark to its silence, that prelude of wonder ringing at
last like the clamour of swords
That clash like the wrath of the warring of lords.