MY ROMANCE.

If it so befalls that the midnight hovers In mist no moonlight breaks, The leagues of years my spirit covers, And myself myself forsakes.

And I live in a land of stars and flowers, White cliffs by a silver sea; And the pearly points of her opal towers From the mountains beckon me.

And I think that I know that I hear her calling From a casement bathed with light— The music of waters in waters falling To palms from a rocky height.

And I feel that I think my love's awaited By the romance of her charms; That her feet are early and mine belated In a world that chains my arms.

But I break my chains and the rest is easy— In the shadow of the rose Snow-white, that blooms in her garden breezy, We meet and no one knows.

To dream sweet dreams and kiss sweet kisses; The world—it may live or die; The world that forgets, the soul that misses The life that has long gone by.

We speak old vows that have long been spoken, And weep a long-gone woe,— For you must know our hearts were broken Hundreds of years ago.