471. The Lover by Richard Henry Stoddard. Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed. 1900. An American Anthology, 1787-1900

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

471. The Lover

(Japan)

By Richard Henry Stoddard


IT is dark and lonesome here,
Beneath the windy eaves:—
The cold, cold ground my bed,
My coverlet dead leaves,
My only bedfellow	5
The rain that wets my sleeves!

If it be day, or night,
I know not, cannot say,
For I am like a child
Who has lost his troubled way,	10
Till I see the white of the hoar-frost—
Then I know it is day!

I touch the silent strings,
The broken lute complains;
The sweets of love are gone,	15
The bitterness remains,
Like the memory of summer
In the time of the long rains!

A few more days and nights,
My tears will cease to flow;	20
For I hear a voice within,
Which tells me I shall go,
Before the morning hoar-frost
Becomes the night of snow!