POEMS GOOD-BYE GOOD-BYE, proud world! I'm going home: Long I've been tossed like the driven foam; Good-bye to Flattery's fawning face; I am going to my own hearth-stone, And vulgar feet have never trod A spot that is sacred to thought and God. O, when I am safe in my sylvan home, I laugh at the lore and the pride of man, EACH AND ALL LITTLE thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown The heifer that lows in the upland farm, The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, Stops his horse, and lists with delight, Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height; ' Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. Nothing is fair or good alone. I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, Singing at dawn on the alder bough; I brought him home, in his nest, at even; For I did not bring home the river and sky; - The delicate shells lay on the shore; The bubbles of the latest wave But the poor, unsightly, noisome things With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar. The lover watched his graceful maid, As 'mid the virgin train she strayed, Nor knew her beauty's best attire Was woven still by the snow-white choir. At last she came to his hermitage, Like the bird from the woodlands to the The gay enchantment was undone, A gentle wife, but fairy none. Then I said, I covet truth; Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat; cage; I leave it behind with the games of youth: '- The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath, I inhaled the violet's breath; Around me stood the oaks and firs; Full of light and of deity; Again I saw, again I heard, The rolling river, the morning bird; - THE PROBLEM I LIKE a church; I like a cowl; Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles; Would I that cowlèd churchman be. Why. should the vest on him allure, Which I could not on me endure? Not from a vain or shallow thought Out from the heart of nature rolled |