Vers Libre

Dear Gene (although that of course, is not your name

But then, I love to think of you as Gene,

Gene Hathaway of moving pictures fame)

Because she’s beautiful, has wondrous eyes,

And makes men turn and look a second time.

All that and more, for more are you to me,

So that is why I call you Gene, and then

Perhaps, no one but you and I will know.

For you have looked at me so many times

I’ve thought with love-light in your eyes,

And dared not to speak, and I have done the same.

I’ve tried to tell you by some look or sign

Of all the grinning love I have for you,

But there is always someone in the way,

I see you only when the crowd is round,

And crowds are hateful to a lover’s mood.

But I believe you’ve seen my love for you,

And you have answered to it with your eyes.

That I may still this haunting doubt of mine,

And feel the thrill of being loved by one

Whom I have loved in silence O, so long!

And if I’m wrong let me know the same,

And I’ll go on still loving you, but you

Will never know, by look, or word or sign.

And life for you will go on just the same.

But life for me will be quite dull and drear

Tho’ I shall try to hide it from the world.

It has been so since e’er the world began,

And will be so until the end of time.

“It is not right, this love,” I hear you say,

“That we have filial ties and promises;

Are bound by law and fate to give our lives

And all that we possess to those who claim

Us as their own, as long as life shall last.

I hear you say, “it is not right, this love”.

But is it wrong? Love goes where it is sent,

And who, or what could stop it, I would ask.

Love is purely a matter of the soul,

And if two hungry souls awaked at last

From a long sleep and find themselves entwined

What law or rule is there to bid them not?

Ah, Gene, I’m hungry, starving for your love,

And I am happy, altho’ sad the while,

Supremely happy in my love for you,

And doubly so if you return the same,

But sad to think we must forever hide

That love from every human soul but ours.

Again I think I hear you say, “‘tis wrong!”

Alas, it may be so! But if we two

Alone this secret know, and sometimes bask

In smiles of love, each other’s smiles of love,

And thrill at touch of hand, or even lip,

Where comes the harm? Whom have we wronged?

And we have gained a moment’s perfect bliss!

My life is cold, cold and barren, Gene,

Although you would not think the same is true.

I long for warmth, for love and sympathy,

For sparkling eyes and sweet, alluring smiles

And ready arms when love calls for its own.

And you? How fares the same with you? Perhaps

Your life, your love, your joy is most complete,

You do not long for love beyond your hearth,

And all my love and all my thoughts are vain?

I beg you some way let me know.

c. July 1, 1904

(Not sure if this is a parody of a specific poem – if so, I haven’t identified it – or merely the form in generally. A quick search for an actress of that era named ‘Gene Hathaway’ wasn’t fruitful, either)

 The last two lines of the first stanza may belong elsewhere – they were separate but adjacent on the original)