302    LITERATURE   OF   LOUISIANA   TERRITORY.
The warm red sweetness of her curving lip,
Whereon the smile that all her soul confessed
Dwelt holily!    Her voice, sweet as the slip
Of southern waters under southern skies!
And, ah, the heavenly blueness of her eyes !
The splendor and the music go, alas,
When the white feet pass.
A gladness unimagined goes
When the white eyelids close.
What stays
When the fair rose decays?
What, when the grass lies faded on the sod?
Dear God,
What stays?   A singing sunshine in the brain!
A memory of bill-slopes under rain,
Bird-wing and butterfly about the plain!
A dream of swaying stems, where roses red
Stand tall and stately in the garden bed,
Of petals drooping softly by the wall,
Full softly, as the snow-white eye-lids fall!
These blessings stay, dear God.
Though all the grass lies withered on the sod.
A glow imperishable stays,
Though the fair rose decays.
What stays
When life has gone Death's ways?
What, when her marble breast upholds the sod?
Dear God,
All things abide which Thou hast wrought for good!
What stays?   The glory of her womanhood,
The joy that in her azure eyes did brood
When at the morning Gate of Song she stood
Listening! The beauty and the grace which filled
Her world as with a sense of music, stilled
But lingering, like unseen wings astir!
Yea, more than these, the stainless soul of her!
The brightness and the wonder stay, dear God,
Though on her breast has dropped the clod.
Love stays ! Love stays !
Though Life has gone Death's ways!