By Severn Sea and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Dear the gray walls hid in the greenwood side
Cresting the sunny shore,
That sleeping sees the snowy canvas glide
And hears the oar;

Dear the swift stream that tumbling through the glen
Scurries across the mead,
Fit emblem of the restless life of men
With peace to end its speed;

Dear the high moor with purple heath o'erblown,
With bracken and with ling,
Haunts only to the screaming plover known
Or the wild hawk's wide wing;

There lonely straying ofttimes have I vowed
My friendship to the rill,
Or sworn me sister to the wandering cloud
Or far-off solemn hill.

Ah sheltering garden of my girlhood's day,
Ah vocal solitude,
Into the world of men I take my way
With all its murmurs rude;

Your charmèd woods I leave, yet ere I go
Into the hum and strife
May something of your tranquil beauty flow
And pass into my life!

So when I weary with the stifling breath
And deafen with the noise,
Shall come to save me from the spirit's death
The memory of your joys;

Tired of the town my fancy's feet shall tread
Once more the upland sod,
And lead once more the days my childhood led
With Nature and with God.