 | Petition to the Deil |  |
60
DURHAM BELLS.
An Autumn Memory.
September 25, 1915.
I
Whence can this music be? The airIs fill'd with haunting sounds,
Elusive music everywhere,
In ever-widening bounds!
Is it a chant of spirits blest?
Of heavenly peace it tells,
Of morning calm, of Autumn rest:
It sounds like English bells.
II
I hear it chiming o'er the Braids,In hollow and on hill;
By Lothian-burn and Swanston glades
It travels with me still.
It ceases, and begins again;
It sinks, and now it swells:
Is it, far-travel'd from their fane,
The sound of Durham bells?
61
III
Now whether from the deeps aboveThey call, or from below,
I seem to hear the sounds I love,
The sweetest bells I know.
They hang where Wear by Durham glides,
Where Peace with Autumn dwells:
Surely the peace of heaven abides
And sounds in Durham bells!
IV
Yes, Memory stirs, and wakes at last!And Durham's river-plain
And Wear, in peace meandering past
As wishing to remain,
And all the peace that Autumn brings,
The peace that all excels,
Arise within my soul that rings
Response to Durham bells.
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