Dedication.

TO

If recompense there be in word or phrase
     For such a love forever brimming o’er,
     Despising common tide-mark, common shore,
Watering the flowers about life’s desert ways
     And causing them to flourish more and more;—

If recompense there be in poem or prose,
     I, who desire to know it, know it not:
     It lies beyond me still, though I have sought—
That I might pay thine own to thee—to close
     My hand upon it in the maze of thought.

Yet, if I may not pay my debt complete,
     Still, as a slight percentage from me, take
     My love and this: a later wave may break
In richer ripples, mother, at thy feet:
     But,—take these now, and keep them for my sake! [Page 1]