Over the water the shadows are creeping, Lost are the lights on Bellagio's shore, Goddess and Faun in the garden are sleeping, Only the fountain sings on as before. Low as its murmur, when daintily falling, Sweet as its plaintive, mellifluous song, Voices of absent ones seem to be calling: -- "Come to us! Come! thou hast waited too long." Vainly I call it a childish delusion, Vainly attempt to regard it with mirth, Still do I hear in my spirit's seclusion Voices I loved in the land of my birth. Ever recurrent, like tides of the ocean, Sad are these cadences, reaching my ear, Waking within me a mingled emotion, -- Partly of ecstasy, partly of fear; For of the friends who once gathered to greet me Many, alas! will await me no more; Few are the comrades remaining to meet me, Cold are the arms that embraced me before! Over Life's river the shadows are creeping, Dim and unknown is the opposite shore, But in the fatherland some are still keeping Lights in the window and watch at the door. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ISOLATION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BEAUTY THAT IS NEVER OLD by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON DOMESDAY BOOK: THE JURY DELIBERATES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS GEORGE MOORE by MARIANNE MOORE THE BLIND GOD by ISAAC ROSENBERG FONTAINEBLEAU (AUTUMN) by SARA TEASDALE |