University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Poetical Works of John Payne

Definitive Edition in Two Volumes

expand section 

WESTERING HOPE.

THE dainty dream of dawn had swooned away
And all the golden chains of noon opprest
The pleasance of the woods. Upon the breast
Of Spring Life slumbered and the innocent day
Linked hands and garlands with the fair mid-May.
So for awhile, meseemed, the long unrest
Died down to sleep within me; peace outprest
Her wine of balms upon me; and I lay
Unmemoried, deep-bowered in a nest
Of dreams, whose perfumes misted up the way
Of Past and Future, till the soft day's wane
Piled towers of sunset on the blue hills' crest.
Then all my grief came back and once again
My soul stretched out sad hands toward the West.