MY ROMANCE.

If it so befalls that the midnight hovers

In mist no moonlight breaks,

The leagues of years my spirit covers,

And myself myself forsakes.

And I live in a land of stars and flowers,

White cliffs by a silver sea;

And the pearly points of her opal towers

From the mountains beckon me.

And I think that I know that I hear her calling

From a casement bathed with light —

The music of waters in waters falling

To palms from a rocky height.

And I feel that I think my love's awaited

By the romance of her charms;

That her feet are early and mine belated

In a world that chains my arms.

But I break my chains and the rest is easy —

In the shadow of the rose

Snow-white, that blooms in her garden breezy,

We meet and no one knows.

To dream sweet dreams and kiss sweet kisses;

The world — it may live or die;

The world that forgets, the soul that misses

The life that has long gone by.

We speak old vows that have long been spoken,

And weep a long-gone woe,—

For you must know our hearts were broken

Hundreds of years ago.