| |
| BURN, O evening hearth, and waken | |
| Pleasant visions, as of old! | |
| Though the house by winds be shaken, | |
| Safe I keep this room of gold! | |
| |
| Ah, no longer wizard Fancy | 5 |
| Builds her castles in the air, | |
| Luring me by necromancy | |
| Up the never-ending stair! | |
| |
| But, instead, she builds me bridges | |
| Over many a dark ravine, | 10 |
| Where beneath the gusty ridges | |
| Cataracts dash and roar unseen. | |
| |
| And I cross them, little heeding | |
| Blast of wind or torrent’s roar, | |
| As I follow the receding | 15 |
| Footsteps that have gone before. | |
| |
| Naught avails the imploring gesture, | |
| Naught avails the cry of pain! | |
| When I touch the flying vesture, | |
| ’T is the gray robe of the rain. | 20 |
| |
| Baffled I return, and, leaning | |
| O’er the parapets of cloud, | |
| Watch the mist that intervening | |
| Wraps the valley in its shroud. | |
| |
| And the sounds of life ascending | 25 |
| Faintly, vaguely, meet the ear, | |
| Murmur of bells and voices blending | |
| With the rush of waters near. | |
| |
| Well I know what there lies hidden, | |
| Every tower and town and farm, | 30 |
| And again the land forbidden | |
| Reassumes its vanished charm. | |
| |
| Well I know the secret places, | |
| And the nests in hedge and tree; | |
| At what doors are friendly faces, | 35 |
| In what hearts are thoughts of me. | |
| |
| Through the mist and darkness sinking, | |
| Blown by wind and beaten by shower, | |
| Down I fling the thought I’m thinking, | |
| Down I toss this Alpine flower. | 40 |
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