Golden Histories, etc :: :: University of Virginia Library

In youth's glad hour I left the eddying dance,
When the large shadows hovered on the wall,
And where proud rocks athwart the ocean glance,
I trod the shore alone, the king of all.

There, as the yellow evening faded fast,
I paced with measured step the barren sand,
Or watched the dwarfing sail and dwindling mast
Fly down the sunset to the morning-land.

Or when the sky was crost with cloudy bars.
Silent I stood on lone and lovely leas,
Or climbed some hill-top overlook'd by stars,
When God seemed passing in the conscious breeze.

Then strength and gladness to my heart were given,
Then soul grew sense and sense refined to soul:
“I am a king, I cried, elect of Heaven!
“I am a part of one majestic whole.

236

“With the great tide of things I ebb and flow,
“I help to ring the world's melodious chime;
“I know life's fairest mysteries, and I know
“Her music and her universal rhyme.”

Lulled in ambrosial dreams all night I lay;
Through lucid air, God's darling, I was borne:
But, ah! I said, these dreams may pass away,—
I with blank eyes may wake and see the morn.