Poetry Archives

I saw her for a moment,
  Her presence haunts me yet,
In oft-recurring visions
  Of grace and gladness met
That marked the sweet demeanor
  Of dainty Margaret.

Like gossamer her robe was
  Around her lightly drawn,
A filmy summer-garment
  That fairy maidens don
To make them look like angels
  Croqueting on the lawn.

The mallet-sport became her
  In hue of exercise
That tinged her cheek with roses;
  And, dancing in her eyes,
Were pantomime suggestions
  Of having won—a prize.

No more to me a stranger
  Is she who occupies
A place in all my musings;
  And brings in tender guise
A thought of one so like her—
  Long years in Paradise.

Dear Margaret! that “pearl-name”
  Is thine—and may it be
The synonym of goodness,
  Of truth and purity,
And all ennobling graces
  Exemplified in thee.