And I thought of the spirits told of in dark old forest lore
Who roam the greenwood singing for ever and evermore;
And I stopped and wondered and waited, as nearer the music grew,
Louder and still more loud—till at last came into view
A troop of Saxon maidens, tanned with the rain and sun,
A burden of billeted wood on the shoulders of every one!
The strong steps never falter’d, the chanting passed away
In the fragrant depths of the woodland, and died with the dying day.
No spirits in truth! yet it seem’d, as awhile in dreams I stood,
That a music more than earthly had passed through the dark’ning wood.
And it seemed that the Day to the Morrow bequeathed in that solemn strain
The whole world’s hope and labour, its love, and its ancient pain.
[IN MEMORIAM: J. T. C. H.]
In hours of respite from the strife
That kills the careless joy of life,
How often, friend, have you and I
Lived o’er those golden days gone by,
When eager hand and eager eye
Against the humming salt sea-breeze
Drove our light craft through breaking seas;
Or when beneath enchanted woods
We floated, where the shadow broods
On still black waters, and delayed
A little in the chequer’d shade
To watch, far down the shining stream,
The golden summer sunlight gleam
On the green banks of storied Boyne.
Ah, in those happy days how well
Did wood and field and water join
To weave the wild earth’s mighty spell!
Gone, gone! and you are also gone,
On dark tides that you sailed alone;
And scarcely more for you than me
Those days are done! O, morning sea,
Where all the morning in our blood
Sang, as we faced the glittering flood!
O, bays the wild sea-murmur fills,
And hot gorse-perfume from the hills!
O, lonely places, echoing
With sound of waters, wave or stream,
Haunted by timid foot and wing,
I see you now but in a dream—
Old days, old friends, we part, we part;
Yet still your memory in my heart
Lives, till the heart be dust; and then
Beyond this realm of Where and When,
Something of you shall linger yet,
And something in me not forget,
When all the suns of earth have set.