Poem by Bayard Taylor

The Cantelope

SIDE by side in the crowded streets,
  Amid its ebb and flow,
We walked together one autumn morn;
  ('Twas many years ago!)

The markets blushed with fruits and flowers;
  (Both Memory and Hope!)
You stopped and bought me at the stall,
  A spicy cantelope.

We drained together its honeyed wine,
  We cast the seeds away;
I slipped and fell on the moony rinds,
  And you took me home in a dray!

The honeyed wine of your love is drained;
  I limp from the fall I had;
The snow-flakes muffle the empty stall,
  And everything is sad.

The sky is an inkstand, upside down,
  It splashes the world with gloom;
The earth is full of skeleton bones,
  And the sea is a wobbling tomb!

1. The Return of the Goddess
2. Gettysburg Ode
3. America to Iceland
4. To M. T.
5. Storm Song

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