How bright in heaven the festal sun is glowing,

Making earth’s loneliest places, with his smile,

Flush like the rose; and how the streams are flowing

With sudden sparkles through the shadowy grass,

And water-flowers, all trembling as they pass;

And how the rich, dark summer trees are bowing

With their full foliage: this to know, and pine

Bound unto midnight’s heart, seems a stern lot—’twas mine!

IV.

Wherefore was this? Because my soul had drawn