Page images
PDF
EPUB

The wanton airs, from the tree-top,
Laughingly through the lattice drop,-
The bodiless airs, a wizard rout,
Flit through thy chamber in and out,
And wave the curtain canopy
So fitfully, so fearfully,

Above the closed and fringéd lid

'Neath which thy slumbering soul lies hid
That o'er the floor and down the wall
Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall!
O lady dear, hast thou no fear?

Why and what art thou dreaming here?
Sure thou art come o'er far-off seas,
A wonder to these garden trees!
Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress!
Strange above all thy length of tress,
And this all solemn silentness!

The lady sleeps! O may her sleep,
Which is enduring, so be deep!
Heaven have her in its sacred keep!
This chamber changed for one more holy,
This bed for one more melancholy,

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
And wingéd panels fluttering back,
Triumphant, o'er the crested palls
Of her grand family funerals,-
Some sepulchre, remote, alone,
Against whose portal she hath thrown,
In childhood, many an idle stone,
Some tomb from out whose sounding door
She ne'er shall force an echo more,
Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!
It was the dead who groaned within.

[ocr errors]
[graphic]
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

T

I.

HERE was a time when meadow, grove, and
stream,

The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it has been of yore;
Turn wheresoe'er I may,

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;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;

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,
And while the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound,

To me alone there came a thought of grief;
A timely utterance gave that thought relief,
And I again am strong.

The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;
No more shall grief of mine the season wrong.
I hear the echoes through the mountains throng,
The winds come to me from the fields of sleep,
And all the earth is gay;

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.
O, evil day! if I were sullen
While the earth herself is adorning
This sweet May morning;

And the children are pulling,

On every side,

In a thousand valleys far and wide,
Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm
And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm :
I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!
But there's a tree, of many, one,

A single field which I have looked upon,
Both of them speak of something that is gone;
The pansy at my feet

Doth the same tale repeat.

Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

V.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar;

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy !
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing boy,

« PreviousContinue »