| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | The Haunts of the Halcyon | | By Charles Henry Lüders (1858–1891) |
| | | TO stand within a gently gliding boat, | |
| Urged by a noiseless paddle at the stern, | |
| Whipping the crystal mirror of the fern | |
| In fairy bays where water-lilies float; | |
| To hear your reel’s whirr echoed by the throat | 5 |
| Of a wild mocking-bird, or round some turn | |
| To chance upon a wood-duck’s brood that churn | |
| Swift passage toward their mother’s warning note:— | |
| This is to rule a realm that nevermore | |
| May aught but restful weariness invade; | 10 |
| This is to live again the old days o’er, | |
| When nymph and dryad haunted stream and glade; | |
| To dream sweet, idle dreams of having strayed | |
| To Arcady, with all its golden lore. | | | | |
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