Ellen Ray

A quiet song for Ellen     The patient Ellen Ray,     A dreamer in the nightfall,     A watcher in the day.     The wedded of the sailor     Who keeps so far away:     A shadow on his forehead     For patient Ellen Ray.     When autumn winds were driving     Across the chafing bay,     He said the words of anger     That wasted Ellen Ray:     He said the words of anger     And went his bitter way:     Her dower was the darkness     The patient Ellen Ray.     Your comfort is a phantom,     My patient Ellen Ray;     You house it in the night-time,     It fronts you in the day;     And when the moon is very low     And when the lights are grey,     You sit and hug a sorry hope,     My patient Ellen Ray!     You sit and hug a sorry hope     Yet who will dare to say,     The sweetness of October     Is not for Ellen Ray?     The bearer of a burden     Must rest at fall of day;     And you have borne a heavy one,     My patient Ellen Ray.