The Project Gutenberg eBook of Songs of the unblind cupid This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Songs of the unblind cupid Author: J. Wm. Lloyd Release date: January 20, 2026 [eBook #77744] Language: English Original publication: Wellesley: Calamus House, 1899 Credits: Charlene Taylor, chenzw, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SONGS OF THE UNBLIND CUPID *** Songs of the Unblind Cupid [Illustration] By J. WM. LLOYD Who also wrote _Wind Harp Songs_ and _The Red Heart in a White World_ [Illustration] _O Cupid are your blinders off? Sing!--laddie, sing! Snap the music blithe and free From the bold bowstring! You will be a man, now, You will see why; Every lass shall have her right And no lass shall cry!_ Copyright 1899 by J. Wm. Lloyd. English copyright secured. _THE CACTUS FLOWER._ [Illustration] She came to me brimming with love; The cup of a red cactus flower filled with dew, The heart of a woman wonderful with color and strength and passionate sweetness, Without reserve, Unconditionally: “All that I am of life and love is yours--take me!” Ah, the redness of the cactus flower! Ah, the heart of a woman! [Illustration] _Love is Life-in-Bloom-- What blossoms in your garden?_ _LOVE._ [Illustration] Love is but a great desire-- Coarse, refined, or low, or higher; Love is like the leaping fire, Warmth and light, or scorchings dire. Love gives blindness, insight plain, Worth or weakness, loss or gain, Sweetest pleasure, saddest pain, Thrilling heart, or bursting brain. Love is pureness, love is lust, Brutal rape, or restful trust; Grants full freedom, or says “Must,” Lifts aloft, or drags in dust. Love is what the nations need, Love has made the nations bleed; Love of all things holds the seed,-- Love the flower, love the weed. * * * * * There is then a lower love Nobler souls will rise above; To the passion that is higher, Wiser souls will aye aspire. _LOVE A-LIMPING._ [Illustration] A rhyming gallant, once, on wing above, Rode Pegasus to Venus’ Court of Love; Whereat her pretty brats came running out To hold the heavenly horse and kiss his snout, And pat his flank, and preen his plumey wing, And hearken with delight his nickering; And of his restlessness recked not, till put Was pawing hoof on one sweet baby foot; Then might been seen a truly curious thing, Cupid blubbering at a horse’s bit-ring. Quo’ poet, laughing: “Faith, I did not know That pains of Love were ever in the toe!” “Not that,” the darling said, “Boo-hoo!--but--shame! No lady--e’er will--he-heed--a Love--so lame!” In his own tears kind Venus washed his face, And wiped it with her golden tresses’ fleece-- “Don’t cry, dear boy, for mother wills it so That even limping Loves may often conquests know.” [Illustration] _In love faults foretell the future Because only organic faults survive-- The offence that has been will be._ [Illustration] _Liberty is a God-name forever taken in vain._ _THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH._ [Illustration] The years roll on, and the head grows grey, But the longing heart doth ever pray, With a prayer too deep for words to say. _Love is the fountain of youth alway._ “Thou art old!” mocks Love, “and hast had thy day.” But the heart protesteth: “Nay, O nay! My life is love, alway, alway, And the human heart is young for aye.” _Love is a fountain of youth alway._ “Thou art old,” saith Love, “and thy debt must pay.” But the heart makes answer: “Nay, O nay! My hunger groweth every day, Grows stronger with eating the years away; Age is for earnest and youth for play, The hottest coals ’neath the ashes stay, And the human heart is young for aye.” _Love is the fountain of youth alway._ [Illustration] _A woman is a flower-- Test her by her fragrance._ _MY LITTLE BIRD._ [Illustration] Oh little bird, why flutter in my hand! O little heart, why quiver at my touch! My hand’s caress would make thee free as air; My touch must leave thy heart as large as love. My hand, O sweet, is not a prison wall, My heart, dear heart, is not a cage for thee, My hand is but another bird to preen, My heart is but a hiding-nest and home. My little bird, press to me heart to heart, Together with me nestle ’neath the bough, Wing with me infinite blue worlds, afar, Where all the clouds are free and winds are warm. O sing with me, dear bird, the songs of heart, O sing to me, sweet heart, and sing with me Of all the bright thoughts of the upper air, And all the love notes ’neath the skies of dawn. [Illustration] _Why speak of wasted love? Love is a circle, it pays its own debt._ [Illustration] _The lover is an artist in touch._ _LOVE IS A VINE._ [Illustration] Love is a vine, they tell; Ah, yes, One tendril clingeth to Nell, And another entwineth on Jess. Of a truth it were well That each should have separate hold, I confess. Should your trellis have only one post, Your vine must be sharply pruned; It cannot grow as it would, And all luxuriance is lost; Its bunches are very large, But only a few are borne; And should the one pillar give way, Down the whole vine is torn, Its leaves in ruin bestrewed, Prostrate, dishevelled and swooned Over the sward and the marge; For many and many a day Helpless, broken and cold-- Love is a vine, they tell. [Illustration] _Love is itself clear fire, Flame perfect--only its objects, These flicker and burn out._ _VIOLIN._ [Illustration] Beautiful body of vibrant emotion, Sweet, throbbing spirit of passion, Love’s peculiar instrument; Sobbing throat of my soul’s secret, Music of all kisses thrillingly printed, Breath of all sighs, with fettered wings flutteringly beating, Pulse of my heart’s pain, Quivering nerve of my love’s longing, Fancy’s interpreter, Voice of the world’s forever unspoken Wine-press of feeling, Dream-wizard; Yearning, yearning, yearning; passionately, passionately, passionately crying; Laughing, rejoicing, smiling, teasing. Scream of the eagle-hearts, Upward, upward, fiercely aspiring; Search of the north-wind in dark pines plaining, Wailing, mournfully moaning; Of trade-sea-breezes, palm-palms dashing Sharply, brightly, under hot suns glittering; Sound of the little brooks, in wood-hollows, mossy, Gurgling with hidden laughter; Fairy-foot dancer of air-drops tinkling. Word of the thunder-thought, Of midnight’s weird silences, Moon-drawn mysteries, Sun-birth ecstasies, Noon’s manhood, Evening’s Madonna, Night’s unfolding-- Of the great, wide ocean, wave-tossed, restless, restless forever. Dreams, visions invoking:-- Of lover’s eyes embracing, long, long mingling, soul-satisfied, forgetting all else, restfully resting each in dear depths of other: Of heart-drawn lips, tenderly, thrillingly touching, pressing, Man upon woman’s growing, glowing, Strong hand under beautiful neck, Breath-blown billow of silken bosom, Waves of tresses on white pillow floating, Souls at one, merging, Life’s true bloom, Heaven the chamber: Of shell-pink babies, softly sleeping, Under mother-eyes dewy with yearning, Mother-lips lullabys crooning, Unspeakable love overshading, fragrant, Devotedly down-drooping, bending, Brooding, brooding. Pair, peace, aspiration, vibration, Nature!-- O violin! O violin!-- Free spirit in bonds, Cry incarnate, Prophet of the over-coming future, Seer of the ever-beyond, blue, blue distances, Life’s melodious oracle,-- I love thee, Thou tongue of the word ineffable! _MAGDALEN._ [Illustration] Unheeded to her hips her dark robe fell;-- Her sweet head bends in agony of soul, Her long hair, hanging, wet with tears a-roll, Dissolving pearls of pain her grief to tell, Her flushed face drooping in her hands doth dwell, Her beauteous flanks sob-shaken past control, Her tear-wet bosoms heaving with the whole, And over all the spikenard’s orient smell. Speak quickly, Christ!--her tears erase her sin; Sweet Type of Peace, thou canst not her condemn! And lo! no man among us dares to stone! “Weep not! Go forth!--new paths thy feet begin; Thy foes are dumb, my test confoundeth them; By love you fell, by wiser loves atone.” _Done at the Calamus House by Alex E. Wight MDCCCXCIX._ _Now at the Calamus House Which is in Wellesley Hills a Village of Massachusetts in America Were Printed 650 Copies of this Booklet, and the Types Were Distributed Without any Plates Being Made_ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES Some long lines have been rewrapped for readability in this plaintext edition. *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SONGS OF THE UNBLIND CUPID *** Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed. Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. 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