University of Virginia Library


189

SONNET XXIX
“A LITTLE WHILE”

A little while, a little while,—and then,
Ye roses and ye lilies all, farewell!
Farewell, each valley and fragrant fern-soft dell:
I shall not meet your tender gaze again.
I pass for ever from the sight of men
To lands wherein the souls of poets dwell:
My foot may traverse many a moonlit fell;
My soul may slumber in some star-proof glen.
Farewell, ye English mountains! For the dead
New mountains lift full many a lordly head.
Farewell, sweet summer and wind-tossed wintry snow!
Farewell, ye seas that on the old shores break!
Keats' eyes may dawn upon me when I wake,
And Shelley's risen soul my soul may know.