University of Virginia Library

THE WANDERER.

(To T. F. R.).

There is never an English sunset
You see in your walks abroad,
And never a restful twilight
Can the mystery land afford;
There is never a deep cool valley
Where the mists drift to and fro,
Or a dew-wet sloping hillside
Where the breezes roam and blow.
There is seldom a gray cloud sailing
O'er the sky's unbroken blue,
Or a whispering wet wind, laden
With the rain, and evening dew;
You are lost to the rolling moorland
With her voice of solitude,
Where the heather and the bracken
O'er the untrod paths are strewed.
There is never a skylark haunting
The granite skies at dawn,
While the last bright star is fading
In the breaking light of morn;
You may wander the great world's highways,
All its pain and pleasure prove,
But your soul knows no other dwelling
Than the hills of the lost land you love.