I. I WALKED With him one melancholy night Down by the sea, along the lonely strands, While in the dreary heaven the Northern Light Beckoned with flaming hands II. Beckoned and vanished, like a woeful ghost That fain would lure us to some dismal wood, And tell us tales of ships that have been lost, Of violence and blood. III. And where yon rock o'erhangs the angry froth, We sat together as the night went by, Watching the great star-bear that in the North Guarded the midnight sky. IV. And while the moonlight wrought its miracles, Drenching the world with silent silver rain, He spoke of life and its tumultuous ills; He told me of his pain. V. He said his soul was like the troubled sea With autumn brooding over it: and then Spoke of his hopes, of what he yearned to be, And what he might have been. VI. 'I hope, ' he said, ' I hope for peace at last, I only ask for peace! My god is Ease! Day after day some rude Iconoclast Breaks all my images. VII. 'There is a better life than I have known A surer, purer, larger life than this: There is another, a celestial zone, Where I shall know of bliss.' VIII. So, close his eyes, and cross his helpless hands, And lay the year's last flowers upon his breast; For time and death have stayed the golden sands That ran with such unrest! IX. You weep: I smile: I know that he is dead, So is his passion, and ' tis better so! Take him, O Earth, and round his lovely head Let countless roses blow! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: J. MILTON MILES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS A WINTER WISH by ROBERT HINCKLEY MESSINGER ON THE BIRTH OF HIS SON by SU SHIH A WINTRY LULLABY by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA ODE 13. ON THE CHARMS OF PEACE by BACCHYLIDES TRAVELLER BY NIGHT, SELECTION by JOANNA BAILLIE SONGS OF NIGHT TO MORNING: 1. AT THE THEATRE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |