 | Later Lays and Lyrics |  |
LONGING FOR SUMMER.
I.
How happy the swift birds of passage must be,Flying southward in flocks over mainland and sea,
To rest their tired wings in some fair southern isle,
Where the bright eyes of summer eternally smile;
And thither, my love! had we wings we would fly,
Nevermore to live under this bleak northern sky!
Our forms are too frail and our hearts are too warm
For this desolate region of darkness and storm.
II.
Oh! long have I waited to rove, hand in hand,With the girl of my heart in some tropical land;
We would banquet on fruitage, delicious and sweet,
While winds blowing landward would temper the heat,
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Through the salt pools of ocean would sluggishly wade,
And birds, darting out from the cool leafy glooms,
The rainbow's own tints would flash back from their plumes.
III.
I would build thee a home amidst whispering bowers,While Time glided by, his old scythe wreathed with flowers;
I would hear in thine accents, unaided by art,
The music that passage would find to my heart,
And toil for thee only, my loved and my own!
In this drear world no longer heart-broken, alone;
No more looking mournfully into the past,
But, soul knit to soul, live and love to the last.
| Later Lays and Lyrics | |