THE SONGS UNSUNG by DOLLIE CAROLINE MAITLAND RADFORD

LIGHT as petals in their falling,
Through a twilight summer hour,
Is your coming, and your passing
As the perfume of a flower;
And your voices by the wayside,
As a sigh the trees embower.

From the forest and the meadow,
From the mountain and the sea,
From the stars beyond the star-world,
From the visions yet to be,
As a dying song you linger
On the air, and call to me.

Stay, ah stay, and cross my threshold,
See the door is open wide,
And I listen for your coming
Through all things that do betide,
Through the weeping and the laughter,
That you may with me abide.

I will give you dainty raiment,
Jewelled o'er with fancies rare,
Through the shadow and the sunshine,
I will weave it for your wear;
Till all people see you clearly
In the town's great thoroughfare.

Ah! you call me, but to mock me,
Fairy folk who will not stay;
As I hasten to your summons
Like a mist you fade away;
Like a dream I dream, awaking,
On the border of the day.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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