A Casual Song Poem by Roden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel

She sang of lovers met to play
'Under the may bloom, under the may,'
But when I sought her face so fair,
I found the set face of Despair.

She sang of woodland leaves in spring,
And joy of young love dallying;
But her young eyes were all one moan,
And Death weighed on her heart like stone.

I could not ask, I know not now,
The story of that mournful brow;
It haunts me as it haunted then,
A flash from fire hell-bound men.