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 | The poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich |  |
“IN YOUTH, BESIDE THE LONELY SEA”
In youth, beside the lonely sea,
Voices and visions came to me.
Voices and visions came to me.
Titania and her furtive broods
Were my familiars in the woods.
Were my familiars in the woods.
From every flower that broke in flame
Some half-articulate whisper came.
Some half-articulate whisper came.
In every wind I felt the stir
Of some celestial messenger.
Of some celestial messenger.
Later, amid the city's din
And toil and wealth and want and sin,
And toil and wealth and want and sin,
They followed me from street to street,
The dreams that made my boyhood sweet.
The dreams that made my boyhood sweet.
371
As in the silence-haunted glen,
So, mid the crowded ways of men,
So, mid the crowded ways of men,
Strange lights my errant fancy led,
Strange watchers watched beside my bed.
Strange watchers watched beside my bed.
Ill fortune had no shafts for me
In this aerial company.
In this aerial company.
Now one by one the visions fly,
And one by one the voices die;
And one by one the voices die;
More distantly the accents ring,
More frequent the receding wing.
More frequent the receding wing.
Full dark shall be the days in store,
When voice and vision come no more!
When voice and vision come no more!
| The poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich | |