POEMS***


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THE LONELY DANCER AND OTHER POEMS

BY

RICHARD LE GALLIENNE

1913






WITH A FRONTISPIECE PORTRAIT BY

IRMA LE GALLIENNE




TO

IRMA

ALL THE WAY


Not all my treasure hath the bandit Time
  Locked in his glimmering caverns of the Past:
Fair women dead and friendships of old rhyme,
  And noble dreams that had to end at last:--
Ah! these indeed; and from youth's sacristy
  Full many a holy relic hath he torn,
Vessels of mystic faith God filled for me,
  Holding them up to Him in life's young morn.

All these are mine no more--Time hath them all,
  Time and his adamantine gaoler Death:
Despoilure vast--yet seemeth it but small,
  When unto thee I turn, thy bloom and breath
Filling with light and incense the last shrine,
  Innermost, inaccessible,--yea, thine.




CONTENTS


THE LONELY DANCER

I

FLOS AEVORUM
"ALL THE WORDS IN ALL THE WORLD"
"I SAID--I CARE NOT"
"ALL THE WIDE WORLD IS BUT THE THOUGHT OF YOU"
"LIGHTNINGS MAY FLICKER ROUND MY HEAD"
"THE AFTERNOON IS LONELY FOR YOUR FACE"
"SORE IN NEED WAS I OF A FAITHFUL FRIEND"
"I THOUGHT, BEFORE MY SUNLIT TWENTIETH YEAR"

II

TO A BIRD AT DAWN
ALMA VENUS
"AH! DID YOU EVER HEAR THE SPRING"
APRIL
MAY IS BUILDING HER HOUSE
SHADOW
JUNE
GREEN SILENCE
SUMMER