Poems (Blake)/For Aye and Aye

by Mary Elizabeth Blake

FOR AYE AND AYE.

O jeweled day, so fairly set
 Within the seasons' golden clasping,
O sapphire seas, that toss and fret
 The yellow sands with eager grasping,—
O warm, sweet air that comes and goes
With musky breath of pink and rose,
When night shall hang her lamps on high
Will you be gone for aye and aye?

Fair earth, in all the happy prime
 Of nodding blooms that deck the meadow,
And tangled boughs that creep and climb
 In dim green aisles of sun and shadow,
Bright wings that flutter as ye pass
In tuneful flight above the grass,
When the swift summer hastens by
Will ye be dimmed for aye and aye?

Deep, murmurous calms that brood and sweep
 As if the earth in tranquil seeming
Lay hushed by whispering winds asleep,
 And our wrapt souls were with her dreaming;
Bright waves that dimple as ye run
Beneath the kisses of the sun,
When wild the storm king's banners fly,
Will ye be lost for aye and aye?

Nay! for my longing eyes have flown
 To each fair point of joy and sweetness,
And made the living page my own
 In all its rare and bright completeness:
So come dark veil of sombre night,
Come tempest wrath, and winter blight,
For earth and air and song and sky
Shall live with me for aye and aye.