John's Mary ripened golden as the wheat, Grew slender as a corn stalk in the Spring. To her tight breast the first turned sod would bring A troubled clutch that stilled her willing feet, And flooded her slim body with the sweet Surge of strangely flowing rhythms, and the far swing Of sounds that bloomed on her mind's height, to cling As mountain flowers braving the wind's wild beat. John's Mary found the secret in a blow When her strong soul rose from her body's sleep; For then it was she saw a morning's glow Spread over waves that rolled a sea's great deep, To flame on a ship's wide deck. They do not know Why Mary sought a sailor, -- and left John to weep. |