LAUNA
DEE
|
|
WEARY,
oh, so weary
With it all!
Sunny days or dreary—
How they pall!
Why should we be heroes, |
5 |
Launa
Dee,
Striving to no winning?
Let the world be Zero's!
As in the beginning
Let it be! |
10 |
What good comes of toiling,
When all's done?
Frail green sprays for spoiling
Of the sun;
Laurel leaf or myrtle, |
15 |
Love
or fame—
Ah, what odds what spray, sweet?
Time, that makes life fertile,
Makes its blooms decay, sweet,
As they came. |
20 |
Lie here with me dreaming,
Cheek to cheek,
Lithe limbs twined and gleaming,
Brown and sleek;
Like two serpents coiling |
25 |
In their
lair.
Where's the good of wreathing
Sprays for Time's despoiling?
Let me feel your breathing
In my hair. |
30 |
You and I together—
Was it so?
In the August weather
Long ago!
Did we kiss and fellow, |
35 |
Side
by side,
Till the sunbeams quickened
From our stalks great yellow
Sunflowers, till we sickened
There and died? |
40 |
Were we tigers creeping
Through the glade
Where our prey lay sleeping,
Unafraid,
In some Eastern jungle? |
45 |
Better
so.
I am sure the snarling
Beasts could never bungle
Life as men do, darling,
Who half know. |
50 |
Ah, if all of life, love,
Were the living!
Just to cease from strife, love,
And from grieving;
Let the swift world pass us, |
55 |
You
and me,
Stilled from all aspiring,—
Sinai nor Parnassus
Longer worth desiring,
Launa Dee! |
60 |
Just to live like lilies
In the lake!
Where no thought nor will is,
To mistake!
Just to lose the human |
65 |
Eyes
that weep!
Just to cease from seeming
Longer man and woman!
Just to reach the dreaming
And the sleep! |
70 |
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