Sonnets and Songs

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</SPAN></span></p> <h3>XXVI</h3> <h3><i>A South-Sea Lover Scorned</i></h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">When the red coral of your lip is pale<br/></span> <span class="i2">As the bleached sea-sand, ah, wearily, wearily,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Will you behold your face, your fingers frail,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Gnarled like a wind-blown tree; your star-bright eyes<br/></span> <span class="i0">Blind as a cloudy midnight without moon.<br/></span> <span class="i2">No more fair necklaces nor scarlet dyes<br/></span> <span class="i0">Can make you cruel to men, for soon, so soon,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Your heart will bear the years&mdash;ah, wearily, wearily.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Then I, your scorn, shall still be man and chief;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Turning to free your hands so carelessly, carelessly,<br/></span> <span class="i0">You will be dead to love past all belief.<br/></span> <span class="i2">Still round the slender columns of the palm<br/></span> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</SPAN></span><span class="i0">The moon shall lie in shivering, silver pools,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Still shall the trades lash through the summer calm<br/></span> <span class="i0">While twilight with her smile the island cools<br/></span> <span class="i2">And Time forgets your presence, carelessly, carelessly.<br/></span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />