178
"I WISH THAT I COULD GO."
"If it is dark?"—what was the Dark? She knew.
Just a brief bridge which others must have passed—
With a slight shiver, it might be—into
A glitter of lamps: a life whose heart beat fast
Under sweet colours, jewels, music, all
The showers of fairy gifts that, faërily, fall
On some Strange City, where———Oh! faint and vast,
Time lies behind, yet nearer seems to grow
That eager sound:
I wish that I could go."
Just a brief bridge which others must have passed—
With a slight shiver, it might be—into
A glitter of lamps: a life whose heart beat fast
Under sweet colours, jewels, music, all
The showers of fairy gifts that, faërily, fall
On some Strange City, where———Oh! faint and vast,
Time lies behind, yet nearer seems to grow
That eager sound:
I wish that I could go."
It is in my own soul. Myself a child,
Some ghostly doorway with my grief I fill;
Eager for blossoms beautiful and wild
Just out of reach: eager to climb some hill,
So far away and almost to the skies,
And (tired of old ones) find new butterflies.
Some One seems gone whom I would follow still
Across the Dark I see your charméd glow,
Strange City, shine———
"I wish that I could go."
Some ghostly doorway with my grief I fill;
Eager for blossoms beautiful and wild
Just out of reach: eager to climb some hill,
So far away and almost to the skies,
And (tired of old ones) find new butterflies.
Some One seems gone whom I would follow still
Across the Dark I see your charméd glow,
Strange City, shine———
"I wish that I could go."
