No more ye sway and shimmer in the sky, In happy fellowship together bound, But swirl and scatter o'er the alien ground, Strange to each other in adversity. Forgotten is the amorous melody That, in the equinoctial roar, was drowned, As up and down ye wander, sorrow-crowned, Like Jephthah's daughter who must childless die. Yet, as the stars unquenched, unflickering, burn While daylight chases darkness round the sphere, The germ of life in dissolution's urn Heeds not the pressure of its swathings sere; And ever, as aforetime, shall return The efflorescence of the opening year. |