 | Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems |  |
II.
And over the greenness, and over the brown
That fell from the groves like a mantle down,
Soon spread a mystical glamour, born
In part of the night, in part of the morn,
Whose soft, warm colors, drifting by,
Lay anon like mist on the mind and the eye;
And visions of wonder, half fear'd, half enjoy'd,
Floating up, sailing on, fill'd that mystical void.
As I lookt, still, and marvel'd, I felt round me fall
The gloom of the cloud that now rests on us all—
The wing of the shadow, the weight of the frown,
That in Eden with words of upbraiding came down;
And out of the distance and darkness stole in
Troubled sounds; and then o'er the bewildering din,
Breaking through the sweet songs of the brooks and the trees,
Rose this Wail, floating up on the breath of the breeze:—
That fell from the groves like a mantle down,
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In part of the night, in part of the morn,
Whose soft, warm colors, drifting by,
Lay anon like mist on the mind and the eye;
And visions of wonder, half fear'd, half enjoy'd,
Floating up, sailing on, fill'd that mystical void.
As I lookt, still, and marvel'd, I felt round me fall
The gloom of the cloud that now rests on us all—
The wing of the shadow, the weight of the frown,
That in Eden with words of upbraiding came down;
And out of the distance and darkness stole in
Troubled sounds; and then o'er the bewildering din,
Breaking through the sweet songs of the brooks and the trees,
Rose this Wail, floating up on the breath of the breeze:—
WAIL OF HUMAN SPIRITS.
1.
Disenthrall'd, we yet linger: not of earth, we are here:And we move in the Mystery yet—year after year.
Like a sunbeam from Darkness to Light we were born—
But our breath pass'd away with the mists of the morn.
2.
Like the grass of the field, ere the seed is yet brown,We were markt for the scythe, and cut ruthlessly down:
117
And the Night came before we well knew it was Day.
3.
In the Mystery still do we grope; and we fightWith vague shades in a void that ne'er promises light,
And yet never brings darkness: we linger, and grope,
And despair never comes, yet we never know hope.
4.
It is never so dark but that shadows we see:It is light enough never from darkness to flee:
The silence oppresses, bewilders, confounds,
Yet less than the voices, which never are sounds.
| Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems | |