Page:Anthology of Magazine Verse (1921).djvu/202

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
I SHOULD LIKE TO LIVE IN A BALLAD WORLD
I should like to live as a ballad maidWho loves, is loved, and dies,Or bears four sons as a matron staidTo her lord's amazed eyes.
Birth, and youth, and womanhood,Ripe lips and golden hair,Death and a lover understood,And a black silk shroud to wear;
And all the long years left untold'The long hours left unsaid,While swift, rare moments of life unfoldBronze and silver and red.
I should like to live in a ballad worldWhile vivid lips of songMy leaping, lingering tale unfurledOf a fate six stanzas long.
The NationEda Lou Walton


INSANITY
My mind is dark with shadows of a seaThat creeps unheard across a barren sandAnd -breaks unheard in silence over me.
Yet,—smooth as any woman's breast is mine,My limbs sweep slenderly in line,My yearning arms, voluptuous and whiteEncircle night.He clasps me close and lays his cooling lipsAgainst my throat and curves his darkling form,

187

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.