Poems: Old and New

by Frederick George Scott

 

MUTE LOVE .

 
LOVE was wanting songs to sing
   On a golden day,
When the earth was bright with Spring
    And the flowers of May.

So he lay beside the brink
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   Of a quiet stream,
Where the cattle go to drink
   And the clouds to dream.

Sunbeams lit the woods around,
   Breezes fanned his cheek,
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And the blossoms on the ground
   Almost seemed to speak.

In the branches overhead
   Robin sang his love,
And the tender things he said
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   Filled the skies above. [Page 116]

Flitting through the scented air
    Where the stream was bright,
Little flies went here and there,
   Crazy with delight.
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But though all were bright and glad,
   Silent was Love’s lute,
For such happiness he had
   That his lips were mute.

So he lay there in the grass
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   By the quiet stream,
And he watched the cattle pass
   And the shadows dream,

Till when evening, dumb and grey,
    Closed the buds that had uncurled,
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Full of song he stole away
   Down the music of the world. [Page 117]