Say, can it be you do not know
That in the Summer long ago,
My friendship into love did grow?
Until, sweetheart, I loved you so,
That all else in this world beside meant
      Naught to me.

Sometimes I feared that you keen eyes
Would surely pierce my love's disguise.
And end my dream of Paradise
With just one look of pained surprise,
To know that love now shared the place
      Where friendship ought to be.

But now the lesson I must learn,—
To quench the fires of love that burn
Into my soul, and make it yearn
For that which you can ne'er return;
For well I know, that just a friend is all
       You sought to be.

Published in Colored American Magazine, October 1903