Pike County Ballads and Other Poems

BLONDINE.

  I wandered through a careless world
    Deceived when not deceiving,
  And never gave an idle heart
    The rapture of believing.
  The smiles, the sighs, the glancing eyes,
    Of many hundred comers
  Swept by me, light as rose-leaves blown
    From long-forgotten summers.

  But never eyes so deep and bright
    And loyal in their seeming,
  And never smiles so full of light
    Have shone upon my dreaming.
  The looks and lips so gay and wise,
    The thousand charms that wreathe them,
  —Almost I dare believe that truth
    Is safely shrined beneath them.

  Ah! do they shine, those eyes of thine,
    But for our own misleading?
  The fresh young smile, so pure and fine,
    Does it but mock our reading?
  Then faith is fled, and trust is dead,
    And unbelief grows duty,
  If fraud can wield the triple arm
    Of youth and wit and beauty.