 | Poems |  |
29
IN THE SHADOWS.
I
And now I am alone: the city's humIs far behind me, and at rest I dwell
Beyond the maddening circle of her spell,
Whither her lynx-eyed envies may not come,
Nor the vain roll of her distracting drum.
O Mother Nature, mercifully dumb,
How doth thy countenance all care dispel,
Breathing a peace upon the inward hell!
Here at thy knees, where in the wayward time
Of reckless infancy I ran and played,
Here at thy knees I mourn my wasted prime,
That far from thee in quest of trifles strayed;
And thou with mute eyes overlook'st my crime,
With thy maternal arms around me laid!
30
II
As wandering bird to its forsaken nest,After long buffetings amid the rain,
Comes home with weary wings fatigued in vain
When Evening's peace soothes the yet weeping west:
Or as the dove, with strange adventurous breast,
Chose the wide horrors of the margeless main
Only with mournful note to seek again
The sheltering ark, a late-returning guest:
So I, repentant, to the shadows flee
From the fierce light that tempted me to roam,
Happy in this, that there is left to me
The sweet obscure security of home,
Doubly endeared in that it was despised,
And in the light of contrast doubly prized.
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III
The voiceless benediction of a peaceThat tarries with me from this very hour
Falls on my brain, as falls the windless shower
On summer plants that droop at day's decease,
Instilling strength and promising increase
To the renewal of the fading dower
The Morning gave: And if the lust of power
Once—to what issue boots not—swayed my life,
Here its command and my allegiance cease!
To you, ye sons of Anak, vainly brave,
I leave the plaudits of the conquered slave
And the unenvied honours of the strife;
For what is all that glory ever gave?
Glitter and sound, and mostly o'er a grave!
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