 | Later Lays and Lyrics |  |
MOUNT OF VISION.
I.
Stand on the charmed Mount of Vision with meWashed by a river that glimmers below;
Crowning its headlands a city I see,
Turret and tower with the morning aglow.
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Ruby and sapphire flash out from the walls,
Lovely are shapes in the pearl-paven streets,
Saintly are heads that look forth from its halls.
II.
Music I hear that sad hearts have desiredSending electrical life through the veins;
Mighty, old masters, when rapt and inspired,
Never could waken such exquisite strains.
How limn with pencil a picture so fair,
Paint in weak colors the Land of the Blest;
Hill-slopes that purple of royalty wear,
Vales in rich glow of the emerald drest!
III.
Forms of the loved and lost gladden the sight,Beings of beauty deplored by me long
Wave their white hands, and I catch with delight
Wandering notes of ecstatical song.
Come to my arms, let me clasp thee again
Innocent child, wearing ringlets of gold!
Bride of my youth! that I mourn for in vain,
Come with the passionate greeting of old!
IV.
Would I had wings to flee swiftly awayThither where grief never uttered a moan—
Spirits relieved from the bondage of clay
Over yon River find passage alone.
Fade into shadow those fields ever green,
Towers, by no mortal hand built disappear;
Roseate mists drop a curtain between
Sand-wastes of Time, and Love's holier sphere.
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