Peace of the ripening years, and hope that vaunted
Its strength so rooted in earth’s purposes
That children’s children should possess peace there!
O sunny vales, and corn, and guardian trees,
Shut off by the blind rain’s down-dropping curtain,—
Vanished, as if they never were,
And doubt alone were certain!
‘Heaven we feigned in a time perfecting
Our missed design, and beauty of our neglecting.
There should we live completed in an age