The Poetical Works of William Motherwell/The Poet's Wish

by William Motherwell

The Poet's Wish.

 

O would that in some wild and winding glen
Where human footstep ne'er did penetrate,
And from the haunts of base and selfish men
Remote, in dreamy loneness situate,
I had my dwelling: and within my ken
Nature desporting in fantastic form—
Asleep in green repose, and thundering in the storm!

Then mine should be a life of deep delight,—
Rare undulations of ecstatic musing;
Thoughts calm, yet ever-varying, stream bedight
With flowers immortal of quick Fancy's choosing—
And like unto the ray of tremulous light,
Blent by the pale moon with the entranced water,
I'd wed thee, Solitude, dear Nature's first-born daughter!