ENVOYS

I

TO WILLIE AND HENRIETTA

F two may read aright

These rhymes of old delight

And house and garden play,

You two, my cousins, and you only, may.

You in a garden green

With me were king and queen,

Were hunter, soldier, tar,

And all the thousand things that children are.

Now in the elders' seat

We rest with quiet feet,

And from the window-bay

We watch the children, our successors, play.

"Time was," the golden head

Irrevocably said;

But time which none can bind,

While flowing fast away, leaves love behind.

Y

II

TO MY MOTHER

YOU too, my mother, read my rhymes

For love of unforgotten times,

And you may chance to hear once more The little feet along the floor.

TO AUNTIE

HIEF of our aunts

not only I,

But all your dozen of nurselings cry

What did the other children do?

And what were childhood, wanting you?