Under the light of the silver moon,
We two sat, when our hearts were young;
The night was warm with the breath of June,
And loud from the meadow the cricket sung,
And darker and deeper, O love, than the sea
Were your dear eyes, as they beamed on me.
The moon hung clear, and the night was still;
The water reflected the glittering skies;
The nightingale sang on the distant hill;
But sweeter than all was the light in your eyes--
Your dear, dark eyes, your eyes like the sea,--
And up from the depths, shone love for me.
My heart, like a river, was mad and wild--
And a river is not deep, like the sea;
But I said your love was the love of a child,
Compared with the love that was felt by me.
A river leaps noisily, kissing the land,
But the sea is fathomless, deep and grand.
I vowed to love you, for ever and ever;
I called you cold, on that night in June,
But my fierce love, like a reckless river,
Dashed on, and away, and was spent too soon;
While yours--ah, yours was deep, like the sea:
I cheated you, love, but you died for me!
Maurineby Ella Wheeler
Milwaukee: Cramer, Aikens & Cramer, 1876.
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