Poem by Helen Gray Cone

The Contrast

He loved her; having felt his love begin
With that first look,—as lover oft avers.
He made pale flowers his pleading ministers,
Impressed sweet music, drew the springtime in
To serve his suit; but when he could not win,
Forgot her face and those gray eyes of hers;
And at her name his pulse no longer stirs,
And life goes on as though she had not been.

     She never loved him; but she loved Love so,
So reverenced Love, that all her being shook
At his demand whose entrance she denied.
Her thoughts of him such tender color took
As western skies that keep the afterglow.
The words he spoke were with her till she died.

1. Retrospect
2. The Going out of the Tide
3. Madonna Pia
4. The Trumpeter
5. The Gifts of the Oak

Robert Service The Contrast ("Fat lady, in your four-wheeled chair")

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