AH, what a long and loitering way And ever-lovely way, in truth, We travel on from day to day Out of the realms of youth! How eagerly we onward press The lovely path that lures us still With ever-changing loveliness Of grassy vale and hill: Of groves of May and morning-lands Dew-diamonded and gemmed with bloom; With amber streams and golden sands And aisles of gleam and gloom; Where lovely little Fairy-folk, In careless ambush, pipe and call From tousled ferns 'neath elm and oak By shoal and waterfall: Transparent even as the stream, The gnarled prison-tree reveals Its lovely Dryad in a dream That scarce itself conceals; The sudden redbird trips the sight And tricks the ear -- or doubtless we With happy palms had clapped the Sprite In new captivity. On -- on, through all the gathering years, Still gleams the loveliness, though seen Through dusks of loss and mists of tears That vainly intervene. Time stints us not of lovely things -- Old Age hath still a treasure-store, -- The loveliness of songs and wings And voices on before. -- And -- loveliness beyond all grace Of lovely words to say or sing, -- The loveliness of Hope's fair face Forever brightening. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LETTER TO JOSEPH WARREN by ROBERT FROST OUR GOOD PRESIDENT by PHOEBE CARY THE PLANTATION CHILD'S LULLABY by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR OH! SUSANNA! by STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER THE FORERUNNERS by GEORGE HERBERT EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 29. ALL NOT WORTH A REWARD by PHILIP AYRES OSTRA by ELLEN FRANCES BALDWIN TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE DREAM GOES BY by EDWARD CARPENTER |