Through pleasant paths, through dainty ways, <br /> Love leads my feet; <br />Where beauty shines with living rays, <br /> Soft, gentle, sweet; <br />The placid heart at random strays, <br />And sings, and smiles, and laughs and plays, <br />And gathers from the summer days <br /> Their light and heat, <br />That in its chambers burn and blaze <br /> And beam and beat. <br /> <br />I throw myself among the ferns <br /> Under the shade, <br />And watch the summer sun that burns <br /> On dell and glade; <br />To thee, my dear, my fancy turns, <br />In thee its Paradise discerns, <br />For thee it sighs, for thee it yearns, <br /> My chosen maid; <br />And that still depth of passion learns <br /> Which cannot fade. <br /> <br />The wind that whispers in the night, <br /> Subtle and free, <br />The gorgeous noonday's blinding light, <br /> On hill and tree, <br />All lovely things that meet my sight, <br />All shifting lovelinesses bright, <br />Speak to my heart with calm delight, <br /> Seeming to be <br />Cloth'd with enchantment, robed in white, <br /> To sing of thee. <br /> <br />The ways of life are hard and cold <br /> To one alone; <br />Bitter the strife for place and gold -- <br /> We weep and groan: <br />But when love warms the heart grows bold; <br />And when our arms the prize enfold, <br />Dearest! the heart can hardly hold <br /> The bliss unknown, <br />Unspoken, never to be told -- <br /> My own, my own!<br /><br />James Lionel Michael<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/through-pleasant-paths/
