SUMMER MOMENTS

I

The sky is blue
The glad grass green.
My sad eyes woo
The alien scene.

O could my heart
Partake of it
And feel no smart
Feeling life flit!

I have no home,
No hours save pain.
Sweet breezes, come
Into my brain!

Great river so
Quiet and true,
Teach me to go
Through life like you!

I have no rest.
My flowers have faded.
What was that quest
My will evaded?

Even what I wish
I care not for.
My heart is rich
And my love poor.

O golden day,
Come into me
And my soul ray
With sunlit glee!

Let me be merely
A window-pane
You pass through, clearly
A warmed no-pain.

I faint and shiver
Hearing life come.
O passing river,
Where is my home?

O happy hours
That the fields wear,
Fresh summer showers!
O my despair!

O glad horizons!
O happy hills!
What pain imprisons
My struggling wills?

What is between
Myself and me?
What should have been
Lest this should be?

My life no more
Ever to be
Than a lone shore
Struck by the sea!

What fate, what power
Of dark despair
Makes each fair hour
Taste as not fair?

O for some rest!
Give me a home,
A hope, a nest
Not to stray from!

Somewhere in life
Sure there must be
Something not strife
Waiting for me.

Lead me to it,
O happy day!
Make my heart fit
Thy going away!

Wake me the hopes
At least, though false.
My spirit gropes
Round prison-walls.

Low voice of streams,
Sweet summer's wife –
Why made I dreams
My only life?