Page:A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields.djvu/332

In a horizon limpid, scattered grand,
Gird it in part, like a transparent band,
A veil of azure that shall float away
When the wind rises with the rising day.
Opens above, the blue, blue firmament,
Where large and pale, but yet magnificent,
The sun is seen, lord of eternal light!
Seagulls traverse his rays, in long, long flight.
The sea and sky, forgetting that they seal
Snows, and fierce waves, that make the navies reel,
Without a threat to-day, or surge, or cloud,
Call on each other. Well may both be proud
To blend the depths of their serenity,
Symbol as each is of eternity!
And earth that suffers, earth that men degrade,
Pleased with the splendour everywhere displayed,
Seems almost, like a child surprised, to fear
This dream of happiness may disappear
Too quickly from its sight. In sheltering boughs
Birds waken and repeat their songs and vows;
The fishers, humming, on the steep white rock
March two and two, and, careful of their stock,
Hang upon rusty hooks their humid nets
Whence shivering vapours rise. By rivulets
On which the elm-trees lean, near roofs of thatch,
A Babel of young voices, or a snatch
From some old ballad, or sweet laughter shrill,
Shows where the girls bleach clothes beside a mill;
Rough wooden shoes upon the pebbles sound;
Old dames with busy feet the wheel turn round;
And 'mid these songs of women, birds and springs,
The murmurs of the flowers that ask for wings,
The cries, inexpressively soft and sweet,
Of infants waking in their snug retreat,