TRIFLES

Only a spar from a broken ship

Washed in by a careless wave;

But it brought back the smile of a vanished lip,

And his past peered out of the grave.

Only a leaf that an idle breeze

Tossed at her passing feet;

But she seemed to stand under the dear old trees,

And life again was sweet.

Only the bar of a tender strain

They sang in days gone by;

But the old love woke in her heart again,

The love they had sworn should die.

Only the breath of a faint perfume

That floated up from a rose;

But the bolts slid back from a marble tomb,

And I looked on a dear dead face.

Who vaunts the might of a human will,

When a perfume or a sound

Can wake a Past that we bade lie still,

And open a long closed wound?