REALMS OF GOLD.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 27, 26 October 1907, Page 13

REALMS OF GOLD.

TO A NIGHTINGALE

My heart aches, and a drowsy numb-ess paim My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Ol- emptied some dull opiate to the dreg's Ono minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk; 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thy happiness, - That thou light winged Dryad of ihe ' trjes, In some melodious plot Of beechcn green, and shadow i numberless, Singost of summer in full-throated, ease. O for a draught of vintage, that hath been .Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, Tasting of Flora and tho country-green, Dance aud Provencal song, ami sun-burnt mirth! 0 for a beaker full 'of tlio warm South, Full of the true, thcCblushfiil Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth; That I might di'ink and leavo the world unseen, ' And with.theo fade away into the / forest dim. . Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forgot What thou among tho leaves hast nev.:r known, The weariness, the fever, and tho frpt Here, where men sit and hear each oth-v groanj Where palsy shakes a few sad last grey hairs, : ■ Where youth • grows pale, and spcctre-thin, and dies; * Where but to think is to be full of " sorrow And leaden-eyed despair; Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes ' Or now love pine at them beyond to-mor- ; row. Away! Away! For I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on tho-viewless wings Poesy, Though the dull: brain perplexes and retards: . Already'with ithce! Tender is the night, And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Cluster'd around by all 'lier starry Fays; But here thero is no light, Save what from Heaven is with the breezes blown '. Through verdurous glooms and "winding ' mossy ways. ' 1 cannot see what" flowers aro at my feet, . Nor what soft incense hangs upon ho ' boughs, But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet Wherewith tho seasonable month'ondows The grass,, tho thicket, ' and . the fruit-tree wild, . White hawthorne, and the pastoral "eglan-. i. tine; ' Fas Wading violets covpr'd up in leaves, And mid-May's eldest child, The coming musk-rose, full of dewy ,winc, The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. Darkling, I. listen, and for many a time I have been lialf in love with easeful Death, Called him soft names in many a mused '.rhyme, . into tho air my quiet breath, Now moro than ever seems it rich to die, To ceaso upon tlio midnight with no pairt, While thou art pouring forth thy soul :, abroad,. . , In such an ecstasy!.. Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears >n ; . vain— To thy high requiem become n sod. Thou' wast, not born for death, immortal Bird! No .hungry [generations tread thee down, The voice I hear (his passing night was heard '' In ancient days by emperor and clown:

Perhaps the self-same song that found a path , Through the'., sad heart of Kutli, when sick ■ . for home, / ' Sho stood in tears amid tlio alien corn; : Tho. same that. oft-times hath Charmed magic easements, opening 011.'lie • foam. ' : '' 1: • ; : Of perilous! seas, in fairy lands forlorn.

Forlorn! The very , word is like, a bell To toll 1110 back from thee to my sole self. Adieu! The fancy: cannot cheat so well ■. As , sho, is -famed to. do,, deceiving elf; Adieu! Adieu! Thy plaintive anthem fades Past the near meadows, over the still stream, Up the hill-sido; and now 'tis .buried def'p :. In the next valley-glades:' Was it a vision ,or a waking dream? " Fled ia that music:—do I wake or sleep?' '