University of Virginia Library


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WHEN THE SWANS OF LIR COME HOME

We gaze with loving, longing eyes,
We gaze our hearts away,
No sign, in near or farther skies
From dawn till death of day.
'Tis cloud that flecks the blue, above,
Below, 'tis flash of foam,—
'Tis not the bright glad glowing light
When the Swans of Lir come home!
They rose on high in azure air,
Wide waved their wings of snow,
And thrice they flew around us there
Till Fate compelled them go.
We followed, and their sweet song heard
From Lake to leafy loam;—
We'll camp no more on Sorrow's shore,
When the Swans of Lir come home!
They rose again, and took their flight
With faltering wings afar,
Their trailing song fell down the night
As falls a dying star.
Too far—too far!—The wandering soul
May see them where they roam,
And eyes that dream the orient gleam
When the Swans of Lir come home!

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Now some go east, and some go west,
And some to feuds have gone,
And men forget their lofty quest
But still, the Swans live on:
And still their song is in our souls—
O'er seas of freezing foam
We see the bright glad glowing light
When the Swans of Lir come home!
June, 1898.