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UNDERWOODS

A dweller on the beach till Argo come
That came long since, a lingerer by the pool
Where that desirèd angel bathes no more.


As when the Indian to Dakota comes,
Or farthest Idaho, and where he dwelt,
He with his clan, a humming city finds;
Thereon awhile, amazed, he stares, and then
To right and leftward, like a questing dog,
Seeks first the ancestral altars, then the hearth
Long cold with rains, and where old terror lodged,
And where the dead. So thee undying Hope,
With all her pack, hunts screaming through the years:
Here, there, thou fleeëst; but nor here nor there
The pleasant gods abide, the glory dwells.


That, that was not Apollo, not the god.
This was not Venus, though she Venus seemed

A moment. And though fair yon river move,