C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Robert Cameron Rogers (1862–1912)

THE HOURS I spent with thee, dear heart,

Are as a string of pearls to me:

I count them over, every one apart,

My rosary.

Each hour a pearl, each pearl a prayer,

To still a heart in absence wrung;

I tell each bead unto the end, and there

A cross is hung.

O memories that bless—and burn!

O barren gain—and bitter loss!

I kiss each bead and strive at last to learn

To kiss the cross,

Sweetheart,

To kiss the cross.