A Study In Gray

A woman, fair to look upon, Where waters whiten with the moon; Around whom, glimmering o'er the lawn, The white moths swoon.

A mouth of music; eyes of love; And hands of blended snow and scent, That touch the pearly shadow of An instrument.

And low and sweet that song of sleep After the song of love is hushed; While all the longing, here, to weep, Is held and crushed.

Then leafy silence, that is musk With breath of the magnolia tree, While dwindles, moth-white, through the dusk Her drapery.

Let me remember how a heart Wrote its romance upon that night!-- God help my soul to read each part Of it aright!

And like a dead leaf shut between A book's dull chapters, stained and dark, That page, with immemorial green, Of life I mark.