C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

William Carman Roberts (1874–1941)

WHOM the great goddess once has kissed

Between the brows,

His heart shall find no dwelling-place

Wherein to house.

The ragged mists shall be his roof,

Where mountains loom,

And swirling winds about his face

With words of doom;

The valleys when he walks therein

Are kind and warm,

Yet ever drift across his soul

Strange gusts of storm.

If, weary, he shall stop beside

An opened door,

Dreaming, “This hearthstone is my goal,

To wend no more.”

A tumult as of snows adrift

Shall fill his ears,

His heart-strings feel the old-time lure

Adown the years,

And he shall turn from that warm light

With still regret

That dreams were made not to endure—

Nor to forget.