The lightning zigzags shoot across the sky When sweethearts wander far away from (Home, Rose, and home, Provence and me. 40 Cold, dreary cold, the stormy winds feel Heigho! aha! for here at home are we:- 45 they In, Rose, and in, Provence and La Palie. Others abide our question. Thou art free. We ask and ask-Thou smilest and art still, Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty, Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,5 Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place, And God he knows, and what must be, Spares but the cloudy border of his base To the foiled searching of mortality; must be, Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep, 35 Where the sea-snakes coil and twine, Children dear, was it yesterday (Call yet once!) that she went away? Once she sate with you and me, 40 45 50 Children dear, were we long alone? "The sea grows stormy, the little ones She will not come though you call all day: Long prayers," I said, "in the world they Come away, come away! Children dear, was it yesterday We heard the sweet bells over the bay? 30 say; Come!" I said; and we rose through the surf in the bay. We went up the beach, by the sandy down Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white walled town; To the little gray church on the windy hill. From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers, children; Come away, away, She will start from her slumber But we stood without in the cold blowing She will hear the winds howling, airs. We climbed on the graves, on the stones worn with rains, And we gazed up the aisle through the small leaded panes. 75 Will hear the waves roar. A pavement of pearl. But, children, at midnight, We will gaze, from the sand-hills, 90 At the church on the hill-side: 140 She left lonely for ever The kings of the sea.' For the cold strange eyes of a little Mer- That wild, unquenched, deep-sunken, old maiden And the gleam of her golden hair. world pain Say, will it never heal? |