 | Forest Notes |  |
68
IN HADRIAN'S VILLA
II
The fane is ruined and its gods have fled;
Through court and grove now strays the lonely breeze,—
Spring's wayward child that never knoweth ease,—
Flinging shrill questionings to quick and dead.
Nor answer comes; but where his feet have sped
Burgeon the ilex and the olive trees;
And some Apollo on his shattered knees
Hears the young violet pierce his ivy bed.
Through court and grove now strays the lonely breeze,—
Spring's wayward child that never knoweth ease,—
Flinging shrill questionings to quick and dead.
Nor answer comes; but where his feet have sped
Burgeon the ilex and the olive trees;
And some Apollo on his shattered knees
Hears the young violet pierce his ivy bed.
Man's soul in vast and lonely halls doth rove;
His years have known of bitterness their sum,
He asks his gods of Faith and Hope and Love,
“Where do I go? and whence is it I come?”
Life writes its yearly message in the grove,
But every empty oracle is dumb.
His years have known of bitterness their sum,
He asks his gods of Faith and Hope and Love,
“Where do I go? and whence is it I come?”
Life writes its yearly message in the grove,
But every empty oracle is dumb.
A.
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