WHEN LIFE IS REAL

We rode, we rode against the wind.

The countless lights along the town

Made the town blacker for their fire,

And you were always looking down.

To‘ scape the blustering breath of March,

Or was it for your mind's disguise?

Still I could shut my eyes and see

The turquoise color of your eyes.

Surely your ermine furs were warm,

And warm your flowing cloak of red;

Was it the wild wind kept you thus

Pensive and with averted head?

I scarcely spoke, my words were swept

Like winged things in the wind's despite.

We rode, and with what shadow speed

Across the darkness of the night!

Without a word, without a look.

What was the charm and what the spell

That made one hour of life become

A memory ever memorable?

All craft, all labor, all desire,

All toil of age, all hope of youth

Are shadows from the fount of fire

And mummers of the truth.

How bloodless books, how pulseless art,

Vain kingly and imperial zeal,

Vain all memorials of the heart!

When Life itself is real!

We traced the golden clouds of spring,

We roved the beach, we walked the land.

What was the world? A Phantom thing

That vanished in your hand.

You were as quiet as the sky.

Your eyes were liquid as the sea.

And in that hour that passed us by

We lived eternally.