| |
(Prelude to Collected Verse)
MEN make them fires on the hearth | |
| Each under his roof-tree, | |
| And the Four Winds that rule the earth | |
| They blow the smoke to me. | |
| |
| Across the high hills and the sea | 5 |
| And all the changeful skies, | |
| The Four Winds blow the smoke to me | |
| Till the tears are in my eyes. | |
| |
| Until the tears are in my eyes | |
| And my heart is wellnigh broke | 10 |
| For thinking on old memories | |
| That gather in the smoke. | |
| |
| With every shift of every wind | |
| The homesick memories come, | |
| From every quarter of mankind | 15 |
| Where I have made me a home. | |
| |
| Four times a fire against the cold | |
| And a roof against the rain— | |
| Sorrow fourfold and joy fourfold | |
| The Four Winds bring again! | 20 |
| |
| How can I answer which is best | |
| Of all the fires that burn? | |
| I have been too often host or guest | |
| At every fire in turn. | |
| |
| How can I turn from any fire, | 25 |
| On any man’s hearthstone? | |
| I know the wonder and desire | |
| That went to build my own! | |
| |
| How can I doubt man’s joy or woe | |
| Where’er his house-fires shine, | 30 |
| Since all that man must undergo | |
| Will visit me at mine? | |
| |
| Oh, you Four Winds that blow so strong | |
| And know that this is true, | |
| Stoop for a little and carry my song | 35 |
| To all the men I knew! | |
| |
| Where there are fires against the cold, | |
| Or roofs against the rain— | |
| With love fourfold and joy fourfold, | |
| Take them my songs again! | 40 |
| |
