Benoni :: :: University of Virginia Library

Once again within the grey old college,
Pillow'd in the mateless student's nest—
Nest, where ever broods maternal Knowledge,
Best beloved of them that know her best.

Thy great children I behold, O Mother,
Soaring grandly in the distant skies;
Single, yet to thee and one another
Bound for aye in closest kindred-ties:

They are not departed altogether—
They have left a glowing track behind;
Light and odours from each dewy feather
Of their pinions linger on the wind,

Melt into a halo and a glory
That above us holds eternal sway,
Tinting these time-hallowed courts and hoary
With the splendours of a younger day,—

Day of pure and heavenward aspirations—
Day of clearest sunniest thoughts sublime
Wakening all the brotherhood of nations,
Gilding e'en the farthest peaks of Time.

I am shrined beneath this day of splendour,
Hid within this gorgeous noon awhile;
Brilliant are its rays—but ah, more tender
Is the moonlight of a human smile!

Still, for Love there is no mortal heaven—
She on Sorrow's thorny pallet lies;
For her own soft cradle-nest was riven
When the wind first blear'd her opening eyes.

Therefore thou art blest, O calm and lonely
Wooer of the great Pierian Nine;
Spirits mute and gentle, striving only
Which shall bring thee rapture most divine:

They, their eager hands for ever joining,
Fondly cluster round thee and above;
In thy hair their varied flowers are twining,
In thine eyes their countless looks of love.

Therefore 'tis a good thing thus to linger
By the crystal fount of light a space,
Tracing round its brim with reverent finger
All high names that sanctify the place;

And from those immortals gone before us
Gathering ever hallow'd thoughts and sage,
While their spirits' shadows hovering o'er us
Flush with riper tints the mellow'd page.

Yea—she is a true majestic Mother,
And her cloister'd mansions are a home:
Search and look—thou shalt not find another
Warm as hers in all the days to come:

Very sweet her short and tented unions
Of the nomad spirits as they rove;
Very pleasant her uncheck'd communions,
Passing all except a woman's love!

Very dear to drink her lonely waters
Underneath an oasis of palms,
While as yet no sudden fierce avatars
Soil our moonlit dews, our fragrant calms;

Waters, welling thro' the soft and porous
Edge where sward and desert are at strife:
Young green years behind—and oh! before us,
Scorch'd and bare, the boundless breadth of Life!