Launa Dee.

Weary, oh, so weary     With it all!     Sunny days or dreary--     How they pall!     Why should we be heroes,     Launa Dee,     Striving to no winning?     Let the world be Zero's!     As in the beginning     Let it be!     What good comes of toiling,     When all's done?     Frail green sprays for spoiling     Of the sun;     Laurel leaf or myrtle,     Love or fame--     Ah, what odds what spray, sweet?     Time, that makes life fertile,     Makes its blooms decay, sweet,     As they came.     Lie here with me dreaming,     Cheek to cheek,     Lithe limbs twined and gleaming,     Brown and sleek;     Like two serpents coiling     In their lair.     Where's the good of wreathing     Sprays for Time's despoiling?     Let me feel your breathing     In my hair.     You and I together--     Was it so?     In the August weather     Long ago!     Did we kiss and fellow,     Side by side,     Till the sunbeams quickened     From our stalks great yellow     Sunflowers, till we sickened     There and died?     Were we tigers creeping     Through the glade     Where our prey lay sleeping,     Unafraid,     In some Eastern jungle?     Better so.     I am sure the snarling     Beasts could never bungle     Life as men do, darling,     Who half know.     Ah, if all of life, love,     Were the living!     Just to cease from strife, love,     And from grieving;     Let the swift world pass us,     You and me,     Stilled from all aspiring,--     Sinai nor Parnassus     Longer worth desiring,     Launa Dee!     Just to live like lilies     In the lake!     Where no thought nor will is,     To mistake!     Just to lose the human     Eyes that weep!     Just to cease from seeming     Longer man and woman!     Just to reach the dreaming     And the sleep!