Shifting Scenes and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Ah! the heavens are too high,
And the sunshine, and the light,
And the purple mountains far,
And the moonbeam, and the star,
And the round and rolling white
Of the sun-cloud, sailing bright
Through a sea of molten light,
And the shows of day and night
Seem not what they are!

Evermore a glory breaks
Over peak and over plain
In the distance, far away;
And the gorgeous skirts of day
Hide the hollows full of pain;
Hide the rents, and hide the rain;
Hide the dark funereal train;
Hide the clouds that come again;
But no living thing can say
It hath touched the gorgeous day,

Which for ever, and for ever,
Glideth on, a golden river,
Far away! Far away!

Evermore there bursts a bud
Which may never come to bloom;
Evermore, in cloudy car,
Beameth up some royal star,
Which some evil thing may mar;
Evermore the summer seas
Shake in light; the laden trees
Stoop in glory to the breeze;
But the beauty of the flower,
And the lustre on the sea,
And the glory on the tree,
And the radiance of the star,
Are not star, nor tree, nor flower,
Yet of that, which, hour by hour,
Lendeth them their golden dower,
Who may know it? For the flower,
Star, and sea,
Bud, and tree,
Seem not what they are!

Evermore a crimson dawn,
Or a glory-swimming noon,
Or a night as bright as day—
With a never-ending play
Of beaming star and moon—

Gladdens all the heaven with dreams,
Gladdens all the earth with gleams
Of forgotten things, and streams
Dimpled lustre on the river
Far away;
But for ever all the glory
Of the never-ending story,
And for ever, and for ever
All the bright and ceaseless play
Of the sunbeam,
Of the moonbeam,
On the tree-top, on the river,
Are for ever, ah! for ever,
Far away! far away!