The Complete Poems Of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Paul Laurence Dunbar

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СКАЧАТЬ mind was filled with healthy thought.

       He doubts not whose own self is truthful,

      Doubt by dishonesty is taught;

      So loved I boldly, fearing naught.

      I did not walk this lowly earth;

      Mine was a newer, higher sphere,

      Where youth was long and life was dear,

      And all save love was little worth.

      Her likeness! Would that I might limn it,

      As Love did, with enduring art;

      Nor dust of days nor death may dim it,

      Where it lies graven on my heart,

      Of this sad fabric of my life a part.

      I would that I might paint her now

      As I beheld her in that day,

      Ere her first bloom had passed away,

      And left the lines upon her brow.

      A face serene that, beaming brightly,

      Disarmed the hot sun’s glances bold.

      A foot that kissed the ground so lightly,

      He frowned in wrath and deemed her cold,

      But loved her still though he was old.

      A form where every maiden grace

      Bloomed to perfection’s richest flower,—

      The statued pose of conscious power,

      Like lithe-limbed Dian’s of the chase.

      Beneath a brow too fair for frowning,

      Like moon-lit deeps that glass the skies

      Till all the hosts above seem drowning,

      Looked forth her steadfast hazel eyes,

      With gaze serene and purely wise.

      And over all, her tresses rare,

      Which, when, with his desire grown weak,

      The Night bent down to kiss her cheek,

      Entrapped and held him captive there.

      This was Ione; a spirit finer

      Ne’er burned to ash its house of clay;

      A soul instinct with fire diviner

      Ne’er fled athwart the face of day,

      And tempted Time with earthly stay.

      Her loveliness was not alone

      –

      Of face and form and tresses’ hue:

      For aye a pure, high soul shone through

      Her every act: this was Ione.

II

      ‘T was in the radiant summer weather,

      When God looked, smiling, from the sky;

      And we went wand’ring much together

      By wood and lane, Ione and I,

      Attracted by the subtle tie

      Of common thoughts and common tastes,

      Of eyes whose vision saw the same,

      And freely granted beauty’s claim

      Where others found but worthless wastes.

      We paused to hear the far bells ringing

      Across the distance, sweet and clear.

      We listened to the wild bird’s singing

      The song he meant for his mate’s ear,

      And deemed our chance to do so dear.

      We loved to watch the warrior Sun,

      With flaming shield and flaunting crest,

      Go striding down the gory West,

      When Day’s long fight was fought and won.

      And life became a different story;

      Where’er I looked, I saw new light.

      Earth’s self assumed a greater glory,

      Mine eyes were cleared to fuller sight.

      Then first I saw the need and might

      Of that fair band, the singing throng,

      Who, gifted with the skill divine,

      Take up the threads of life, spun fine,

      And weave them into soulful song.

      They sung for me, whose passion pressing

      My soul, found vent in song nor line.

      They bore the burden of expressing

      All that I felt, with art’s design,

      And every word of theirs was mine.

      I read them to Ione, ofttimes,

      By hill and shore, beneath fair skies,

      And she looked deeply in mine eyes,

      And knew my love spoke through their rhymes.

      Her life was like the stream that floweth,

      And mine was like the waiting sea;

      Her love was like the flower that bloweth,

      And mine was like the searching bee—

      I found her sweetness all for me.

      God plied him in the mint of time,

      And coined for us a golden day,

      And rolled it ringing down life’s way

      With love’s sweet music in its chime.

      And God unclasped the Book of Ages,

      And laid it open to our sight;

      Upon СКАЧАТЬ