Response
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

When Phyllis sighs
And from her eyes the light dies out:
My heart replies
with misery of deep-drawn breath,
Even as it were at war with death.

When Phyllis smiles,
Her glance beguiles my heart
thru love-lit woodland aisles,
And thru the silence high and clear,
A wooing warbler’s song, I hear.
So frown not, Phyllis, lest I die,
But look on me with smile or sigh.