WHEN I'M AMONG A BLAZE OF LIGHTS

WHEN I'M AMONG A BLAZE OF LIGHTS …

When I'm among a blaze of lights,


With tawdry music and cigars


And women dawdling through delights,


And officers at cocktail bars,—


Sometimes I think of garden nights


And elm trees nodding at the stars.

I dream of a small firelit room


With yellow candles burning straight,


And glowing pictures in the gloom,


And kindly books that hold me late.


Of things like these I love to think


When I can never be alone:


Then some one says, "Another drink?"—


And turns my living heart to stone.