Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
VI. LoversA Christmas Scene
Thomas Osborne Davis (18141845)That late were as harp-strings to each gentle breeze;
The strangers and cousins and every one flown,
While we sit happy-hearted—together—alone.
The snow is on their cheek, on mine your black hair;
Papa with his farming is busy to-day,
And mamma ’s too good-natured to ramble this way.
To fetch bows and bonnets, perchance a beau, down;
Ah! tell them, dear Kate, ’t is not fair to coquette—
Though you, you bold lassie, are fond of it yet!
You gave Harry a rose, and you dubbed him your knight;
Poor lad! if he loved you—but no, darling! no,
You ’re too thoughtful and good to fret any one so.
And Harry, the poet, of lake, hill, and glade;
While the light of your eye and your soft wavy form
Suit a proser like me, by the hearth bright and warm.
But you know, Kate, it ’s not half so white as your hand,
And say what you will of the gray Christmas sky,
Still I slightly prefer my dark girl’s gray eye.
For it bids us the summer and winter love through;
And then I ’ll read out an old ballad that shows
How Tyranny perished, and Liberty rose.
And your cheek flushes wilder from kissing so oft,
For town or for country, for mountains or farms,
What care I?—My darling’s entwined in my arms.