Page:The college beautiful, and other poems.djvu/58

When had man's wavering shadow darkened
The bending rushes above her nest ?
Once and again are her calm years numbered,
Since the poet knelt by the lake's blue brink,
And his red lips, kissing the lilies that slumbered,
Laughed to drink.

Then was his spirit with song upwelling,
As a silver brook in the sunny time.
His fancies flew to their native dwelling
In shapes of beauty and sounds of rhyme.
A thousand thoughts grew green in the hedges,
And rippled for him on the wind-blown mere,
And the dewdrop left on the daisy's edges
Held a sphere.

When the wine o'erfloweth, hasten to drink it,
Lest thy thirst shall find but the bitter lees.
Ere the deep waves whelm and the dark storms sink it,
Sail thy ship for the purple seas.
Few are the mortals who wrest the story
From the tight-shut fingers of Fame, the strong
Fewest of few for whose coming, glory
Waiteth long.

Alas for the poet! his feet are whitened
With the trodden dust of the hard high road.