Poems (Blake)/Vale
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For works with similar titles, see Vale.
VALE.
Hail, and farewell! O balm and bane
Of earthly joy and earthly sorrow!
We only meet to part again,
And night still shrouds the brightest morrow.
Of earthly joy and earthly sorrow!
We only meet to part again,
And night still shrouds the brightest morrow.
One day, and drunken with delight,
The wild bird sings to each new-comer;
The next, he wings his alien flight,
To find far off the vanished summer.
The wild bird sings to each new-comer;
The next, he wings his alien flight,
To find far off the vanished summer.
One moment, and our hearts have flown
Through clasping hands and fond lips meeting;
The next, we stand and wait alone,
While memory holds the place of greeting.
Through clasping hands and fond lips meeting;
The next, we stand and wait alone,
While memory holds the place of greeting.
O promised land, supremely fair,
To whose blest height our feet are turning!
Of all thy gifts most strange and rare
For which our longing hearts are burning,—
To whose blest height our feet are turning!
Of all thy gifts most strange and rare
For which our longing hearts are burning,—
Will any be so sweet as this:
That when the soul,—divinely shaken
By that first throbbing pulse of bliss
Which bids its slumbering sense awaken,—
That when the soul,—divinely shaken
By that first throbbing pulse of bliss
Which bids its slumbering sense awaken,—
Shall turn to meet its God at last,
In that "All hail!" so sweet and tender?
Farewell shall evermore be cast
From heaven's eternal light and splendor!
In that "All hail!" so sweet and tender?
Farewell shall evermore be cast
From heaven's eternal light and splendor!
Nor, through all time, shall parting rend,
Or grief bemoan, or loss dissever,
But fair lost hope and fair lost friend
Once more our own, be ours forever!
Or grief bemoan, or loss dissever,
But fair lost hope and fair lost friend
Once more our own, be ours forever!