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I
O WILD heart, track the land’s perfume, | |
| Beach-roses and moor-heather! | |
| All fragrances of herb and bloom | |
| Fail, out at sea, together. | |
| O follow where aloft find room | 5 |
| Lark-song and eagle-feather! | |
| All ecstasies of throat and plume | |
| Melt, high on yon blue weather. | |
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| O leave on sky and ocean lost | |
| The flight creation dareth; | 10 |
| Take wings of love, that mounts the most: | |
| Find fame, that furthest fareth! | |
| Thy flight, albeit amid her host | |
| Thee, too, night star-like beareth, | |
| Flying, thy breast on heaven’s coast, | 15 |
| The infinite outweareth. | |
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II
“Dead o’er us roll celestial fires; | |
| Mute stand Earth’s ancient beaches; | |
| Old thoughts, old instincts, old desires, | |
| The passing hour outreaches; | 20 |
| The soul creative never tires— | |
| Evokes, adores, beseeches; | |
| And that heart most the god inspires | |
| Whom most its wildness teaches. | |
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| “For I will course through falling years | 25 |
| And stars and cities burning; | |
| And I will march through dying cheers | |
| Past empires unreturning; | |
| Ever the world flame reappears | |
| Where mankind power is earning, | 30 |
| The nations’ hopes, the people’s tears, | |
| One with the wild heart yearning. | |
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