C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Helen Gray Cone (1859–1934)

A WIND of spring, that whirls the feignèd snows

Of blossom petals in the face, and flees;

Elusive, made of mirthful mockeries,

Yet tender with the prescience of the rose;

A strain desired, that through the memory goes,

Too subtle-slender for the voice to seize;

A flame dissembled, only lit to tease,

Whose touch were half a kiss, if one but knows.—

She shows by Leonato’s dove-like daughter

A falcon by a prince to be possessed,

Gay-graced with bells that ever chiming are;

In azure of the bright Sicilian water,

A billow that has rapt into its breast

The swayed reflection of a dancing star!