A Life's Idylls Author:Hugh Conway Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SONG—IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN! I Hear it in the throstle's note, It sounds through rustling trees, From rippling waves sad echoes float Adown the sighing bre... more »eze. And you, my love, the first, the last, My love for time to be, Do voices haunt you from the past And whisper mournfully, " It might have been !" The years pass on, but never heal The wounds that throb and pain ; Our hands may meet and eyes may steal To once-loved eyes again: O love, my love, the first, the last, My love for time to be, Will your sad eyes be overcast And echo back to me, " It might have been !"FOR LOVE OR FAME. Love rightly chose the singer's words, Love strung his harp and softly swept His fingers o'er the trembling chords Till music wakened, pleaded, wept. Love's brightest garments all things clad— The birds, the flowers, the blue above; Yea, all the world for Love was glad, And so the singer sang of Love. Of Love the loss, of Love the gain, Of Love that hopes, of Love that waits He sang, till birds around were fain To learn his lore, to woo their mates. At last he paused and turned to find An echo to his sweet refrain In eyes he loved : adown the wind Wailed one sad note, and song was slain. His dream was o'er; he knew the breast Of her he loved and longed to sway No throb of rising love distrest, No answering note was there : it lay Calm as yon lake. Her eyes' pure rays Shone coldly as the morning star, And followed with a dreamy gaze .Some truant fancy soaring far. A soft wind, whispering tenderly, With trembling leaves toyed overhead ; A dying rose-bloom fluttered free ; Across the lake a ripple sped ; And o'er the lady's calm face past A flush, then lips were lightly curled In scorn, as errant thoughts at ...« less