A Sudden Rise

She sat beneath the swaying elms,

     I at her feet was lying;

The late autumnal breezes went

     Amongst the branches sighing.

“Be mine, be mine,” I begged of her,

     “Thine heart one kiss bequeath me;”

“Alas!” she said with dropping eyes,

     You are too far beneath me.”

The sunshine left the woodland then,

     The thrushes ceased their singing;

And through my heart, with doleful knell

     Her cruel words went ringing.

She saw my gloom, and bending low,

     She said with eyes a-revel,

“Dear sir, you may have all of this,

     By rising to my level.”

Nov. 15, ‘96

Pub. in Camb’

Chronicle, Apr.

     17, ‘97