I stood where the home of my boyhood had been , In the Bellflower Vale, by the Lake of Bir-b³l; And I pensively gazed on the wreck of a scene Which the dreams of the Past made so dear to my soul. For its light had grown dim while I wandered afar, And its glories had vanished, like leaves on the gale, And the frenzy of Man and the tempests of War Had laid prostrate the pride of my Bellflower Vale. I thought how long years of disaster and woe Scarce woke in my bosom one sigh for the Past, How my hopes, like the home of my childhood, lay low, While the spirit within remained calm to the last. Then I looked on the lake that lay deep in the dell As pellucidly fair as in summers gone by, And amid the sad ruins of cottage and cell Still mirrored the beautiful face of the sky. And I said, So may Ruin o'ertake all we love, And our minds like Bir-b³l, abide bright evermore; So the heart that in grief looks to Allah above, Still reflects the same heaven from its depths as before! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LITTLE ELF-MAN by JOHN KENDRICK BANGS THE USE OF FLOWERS by MARY HOWITT WHAT THE THRUSH SAID by JOHN KEATS THE PILLAR OF THE CLOUD by JOHN HENRY NEWMAN THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE: BOOK 1. CANTO 2. PRELUDE: LOVE AT LARGE by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE TOUJOURS AMOUR by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 74 by ALFRED TENNYSON |