O, tree of life! the storms of years are shaking Thy fruit to earth, while comes autumnal night, And one by one the ties of time are breaking, While one by one my loves are taking flight. Behold, the high resolves of youth are ended; No more I chase the phantom of my quest. My work is now complete. I have ascended The last high peak to view the land of rest. The sunbeams thro' the mountains backward slanting Tell me the night is near, the goal below; I hear inviting voices welcomes chanting;— Give me my robe and staff, and let me go. Love, fame, ambition, all the phantom glories That lured me hither, leave me now alone; The woeful moral of forgotten stories I write, forgetting, on this wayside stone. I see the footprints others made before me, And I will follow them into the gloom, While these poor flow'rs that I have gathered gore me With thorns that fittingly may deck a tomb. Farewell to all I love! Beyond the river Are white-robed visions of immortal birth. Behold, the hand that taketh was the giver. Farewell to all my dreams! Farewell to earth! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE by JOHN KEATS WITH A GUITAR, TO JANE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY SHEEP AND LAMBS by KATHARINE TYNAN THE PERSIANS (PERSAE): SALAMIS - MESSENGER by AESCHYLUS THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: ONCE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |