I — On Christmas Eve

Late on Christmas Eve, in the street alone,

Outside a house, on the pavement-stone,

I sang to her, as we'd sung together

On former eves ere I felt her tether. -

Above the door of green by me

Was she, her casement seen by me;

But she would not heed

What I melodied

In my soul's sore need -

She would not heed.

Cassiopeia overhead,

And the Seven of the Wain, heard what I said

As I bent me there, and voiced, and fingered

Upon the strings.... Long, long I lingered:

Only the curtains hid from her

One whom caprice had bid from her;

But she did not come,

And my heart grew numb

And dull my strum;

She did not come.