The wanton airs, from the tree-top, Above the closed and fringéd lid 'Neath which thy slumbering soul lies hid Why and what art thou dreaming here? The lady sleeps! O may her sleep, I pray to God that she may lie Forever with unopened eye, While the dim sheeted ghosts go by! My love she sleeps! O may her sleep, As it is lasting, so be deep! Far in a forest dim and old, For her may some tall vault unfold, Some vault that oft hath flung its black T I. HERE was a time when meadow, grove, and The earth, and every common sight Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more! II. The rainbow comes and goes, And lovely is the rose; The moon doth with delight Look round her when the heavens are bare; Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; But yet I know, where'er I go, That there hath past away a glory from the earth. III. Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, To me alone there came a thought of grief; The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep; Land and sea Give themselves up to jollity, And with the heart of May Doth every beast keep holiday! Thou child of joy, Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy shepherd boy! IV. Ye blessed creatures, I have heard the call Ye to each other make; I see The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; My heart is at your festival, My head hath its coronal; The fulness of your bliss, I feel — I feel it all. And the children are pulling, On every side, In a thousand valleys far and wide, A single field which I have looked upon, Doth the same tale repeat. Whither is fled the visionary gleam? V. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: And cometh from afar; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! |