| |
| NEAR where yonder evening star | |
| Makes a glory in the air, | |
| Lies a land dream-found and far | |
| Where is it light alway. | |
| There those lovely ghosts repair | 5 |
| Who in Sleep’s enchantment are, | |
| In Cockayne dwell all things fair. | |
| (But it is far away.) | |
| |
| Through the gates—a goodly sight— | |
| Troops of men and maidens come, | 10 |
| There shut out from Heaven at night | |
| Belated angels stray; | |
| Down those wide-arched groves they roam | |
| Through a land of great delight, | |
| Dreaming they are safe at home. | 15 |
| (But it is far away.) | |
| |
| There the leaves of all the trees | |
| Written are with a running rhyme, | |
| There all poets live at peace, | |
| And lovers are true, they say. | 20 |
| Earth in that unwintered clime | |
| Like a star incarnate sees | |
| The glory of her future time. | |
| (But it is far away.) | |
| |
| Hard to find as it is far! | 25 |
| Dark nights shroud its brilliance rare, | |
| Crouching round the cloudy bar | |
| Under the wings of day. | |
| But if thither ye will fare, | |
| Love and Death the pilots are,— | 30 |
| Might either one convey me there! | |
| (But it is far away.) | |
| |
