The Poetical Works of Walter C. Smith ... Revised by the Author: Coll. ed. |
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 | The Poetical Works of Walter C. Smith |  |
RETROSPECT
The traveller in the desert lone
Looks back, regretful oft, to think
Of the sweet wells where he could drink,
Ere Fate had lured, or driven him on
Into a wan and wasted land
Of Wadys where the streams are sand.
Looks back, regretful oft, to think
Of the sweet wells where he could drink,
Ere Fate had lured, or driven him on
Into a wan and wasted land
Of Wadys where the streams are sand.
And wistfully I, too, look back
From life, successful as they say,
That has no water by the way;
And it is water that I lack,
And there was water for my thirst,
When failure of my hope was worst.
From life, successful as they say,
That has no water by the way;
And it is water that I lack,
And there was water for my thirst,
When failure of my hope was worst.
There is no life so commonplace
But, if you search it, you shall find
A secret chamber of the mind,
Enshrining some fair sainted face,
Where worship still is done with tears
That freshen the grey dusky years.
But, if you search it, you shall find
A secret chamber of the mind,
Enshrining some fair sainted face,
Where worship still is done with tears
That freshen the grey dusky years.
That was its living water once,
Sweet-singing ever by the way,
And gleaming through its darkest day,—
The glory of its young Romance:
But oh, the desert wastes that spread
Where Love lives on, and Hope is dead!
Sweet-singing ever by the way,
And gleaming through its darkest day,—
The glory of its young Romance:
But oh, the desert wastes that spread
Where Love lives on, and Hope is dead!
| The Poetical Works of Walter C. Smith | |