Poems (Odom)/Our Starlit Hour

OUR STARLIT HOUR.
My darling, do you remember still
A beautiful summer night,
When the roses nodded to the breeze,
And the bluebirds slept in the dear old trees,
And the stars were grandly bright?

The rising winds about our feet
The rose leaves gently tossed;
The words you whispered—I hear them still
Like the murmuring sound of a distant rill
Whose waves my feet have crossed.

The pale sweet blooms of jessamine swung
Like waxen censers there,
And the blue-eyed violets woke from sleep
In softer fragrance still to steep
The stirring summer air.

Oh, life was sweet in that holy hour;
But only the angels knew
That earth was heaven, and heaven was ours,
As we stood there in the midst of flowers
All bright with the sparkling dew.

The music swelled, we could see the dance
Through curtains of falling lace;
Ah! beauty and wealth were there that night,
But all I saw was the quivering light
Of love on your passionate face.

That once our souls had purely met,
That once our paths had crossed—
The wine of love, as it sparkled up,
We drank till we drained the golden cup,
And the hour was lived and—lost.

Back to the world we went at last,
Back from the stars and flowers!
Away from that fragrant bower of bliss,
Yet, all through life remembering this,
One beautiful dream of ours.