THE ETERNAL CHILDREN
Oh, glad were the grassy flats,
With the flower’d coat of Spring!
Merry were the many lambs,
Joyously the throstles,
The blackbirds, the bell-birds,
And the meadow-larks did sing!
Oh, blithe were the breezy waters,
Whose year is ever new!—
Gold gloss for them to tread
The broad-beaming sand outspread,
Shot with rose and emerald,
With sheeny bronze and blue.
O’er it, the advancing waves,
Curtseying manifold,
Bended each a brow of snow
O’er a breast of gold;
Gleaming paused....glancing poised....
Then, glittering, onward roll’d.
And far, far beyond them,
In the far fields of air,
—Beyond the sapphire limit,
Whence the quick waves are brought,
Beyond the wall’d-in valley:
Where walls are not:—
Over the sea, one snow-peak
Stood, vision-fair;
Troubled, stain’d, never:
In pure peace for ever:
Half-way up to Heaven,
Like a great white Thought.
There, breathing in the sunshine,
Bathed by the breeze,
Every nerve and sense and pore
Basking, at ease:
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