Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Mercedes
By Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard (18231902)U
On the yellow sand I lie;
The crinkled vapors smite my brain,
I smoulder in a fiery pain.
He knows where the red gold lies,
He knows where the diamonds shine:
If I knew, would she be mine?
In her court a palm-tree flings
Its slender shadow on the ground,
The fountain falls with silver sound.
With my hand I crush it up,
I tear its flaming leaves apart:—
Would that I could tear her heart!
In the hedge I lay in wait;
I saw Mercedes meet him there,
By the fire-flies in her hair.
Then I rose and stole away;
But left my dagger in her gate:—
Now she knows her lover’s fate.