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TO CINNA

Eugene Field

Cinna, the great Venusian told

In songs that will not die

How in Augustan days of old

Your love did glorify

His life and all his being seemed

Thrilled by that rare incense

Till, grudging him the dreams he dreamed,

The gods did call you hence.

 

Cinna, I've looked into your eyes,

And held your hands in mine,

And seen your cheeks in sweet surprise

Blush red as Massic wine;

Now let the songs in Cinna's praise

Be chanted once again,

For, oh! alone I walk the ways

We walked together then!

 

Perhaps upon some star to-night,

So far away in space

I cannot see that beacon light

Nor feel its soothing grace--

Perhaps from that far-distant sphere

Her quickened vision seeks

For this poor heart of mine that here

To its lost Cinna speaks.

 

Then search this heart, beloved eyes,

And find it still as true

As when in all my boyhood skies

My guiding stars were you!

Cinna, you know the mystery

That is denied to men--

Mine is the lot to feel that we

Shall elsewhere love again!