XXXVIII

On the way to Kew,
By the river old and gray,
Where in the Long Ago

We laughed and loitered so,
I met a ghost to-day,

A ghost that told of

you

By the river old and gray,
The enchanted Long Ago
Murmured and smiled anew.
On the way to Kew,

March had the laugh of May,
The bare boughs looked aglow,
And old, immortal words
Sang in my breast like birds,
Coming up from Richmond
As I used with you.

With the life of Long Ago
Lived my thought of you.
By the river old and gray
Flowing his appointed way
As I watched I knew
What is so good to know-
Not in vain, not in vain,
Shall I look for you again
Coming up from Richmond
On the way to Kew.

XXXIX

THE Past was goodly once, and yet, when all is said,

The best of it we know is that it's done and dead.

Dwindled and faded quite, perished beyond recall, Nothing is left at last of what one time was all.

Coming back like a ghost, staring and lingering on, Never a word it speaks but proves it dead and gone.

Duty and work and joy-these things it cannot give;

And the Present is life, and life is good to live.

Let it lie where it fell, far from the living sun, The Past that, goodly once, is gone and dead and done.

XL

THE spring, my dear,
Is no longer spring.
Does the blackbird sing
What he sang last year?
Are the skies the old
Immemorial blue?

Or am I, or are you,
Grown cold?

XLI

To R. A. M. S.

The Spirit of Wine

Sang in my glass, and I listened
With love to his odorous music,
His flushed and magnificent song.

-'I am health, I am heart, I am life!

For I give for the asking

The fire of my father, the Sun,

And the strength of my mother, the Earth.

Inspiration in essence,

I am wisdom and wit to the wise,

His visible muse to the poet,

The soul of desire to the lover,

The genius of laughter to all.

'Come, lean on me, ye that are weary !
Rise, ye faint-hearted and doubting!
Haste, ye that lag by the way!
I am Pride, the consoler ;