I SAT me down and looked around | |
The little lamp-lit room, and saw | |
Where many pictures gloomed and frowned | |
In sad, still life, nor made a sound | |
A many for one to draw: | 5 |
Shadow and sea and ground | |
Held by the artists law, | |
Beauty without a flaw, | |
All with a sense profound. | |
|
One teeming brain was wood and hill, | 10 |
And sloping pastures wide and green, | |
And cool, deep seas where rivers spill | |
The snows of mountains far and chill, | |
Sad pools where the shadows lean. | |
Old trees that hang so still. | 15 |
Fields which the reapers glean. | |
Plains where the wind is keen. | |
Each with a nerve to thrill. | |
|
Elusive figures swayed and yearned | |
By lake and misty greenwood dim, | 20 |
Seeking in sorrow: they had learned | |
In one nights dream might be discerned, | |
A pace from the worlds rim, | |
Wages their woe had earned, | |
Rest from the labour grim, | 25 |
God and the peace of Him | |
These in a frame interned. | |
|
On through the forest, one step on, | |
One step, O Powers, let me attain | |
This hard, dead step, let me be gone | 30 |
Back where I and the morning shone, | |
Back ere the dream shall wane | |
When I and a star were one. | |
Seen through the veils of pain | |
Glory shall shine again: | 35 |
God, has the vision gone? | |