I hid a dream amid the sands of Time, And said, “Now will I go upon my way-- I shall be free henceforward from this time, And full of laughter all the livelong day.” But it came following like the midnight voice Of my true love behind her lattice-bars-- And it came following like the silver voice Of my lost childhood strayed beyond the stars: Like my dead self, so laughable, so sad, So foolish and so lovable it rang-- That, for sheer laughter, I was very sad, And took it back into my heart, and sang. HAUNTED EARTH Heaven at last Is bared, and the whole world one radiant room-- Black are the shadows, in great pools of gloom By copse and thicket cast. The cattle browse With sound of gentle breathing, and their breath Is mild in glimmering meadows, or beneath Drooped branches, where they drowse; While ’mongst the chill Shadows, and cold, clear moonlight all about, A single bat goes dipping in and out Softly; and all is still. Silence around-- Save for a cricket! Lapped in slumb’rous peace Lie hill and meadowland, the shining seas Lap on them without sound. It is earth’s cry Lifted in adoration: the old dream, Beauty, is with her, and her hour supreme That goes so swiftly by. Too well she knows The sweet Illusion, from no earthly shore Visitant, the bright word that evermore Troubles her dark repose. Her heart lies bare-- Drunken, drunken, she lifts a dreamy breast; Hour by hour, in rapture and unrest Flows the unending prayer. The path of night Reaches, from rim to rim, a radiant road Whereon the exalted Beauty walks abroad In wonder and wild light. Upon what eyes, Lifted in homesickness, now falls again The loveliness that haunts the world with pain-- Light out of Paradise! LONG AGO Ah, once your quiet eyes were calm and deep And wistful with much dreaming; long ago Your solemn lips, so innocent of woe And delicately parted, seemed to keep A secret still unsaid, and murmured low: But that was long ago. And I, who saw and loved you from afar, Prayed a hushed prayer, the first I ever prayed, That God might keep you safe; and unafraid I looked up through the night at my one star, Moving mysteriously and bright-arrayed. And silently I prayed. While you passed singing tenderly and low, Wandering through life’s meadows with slow tread, Death laid his kiss on your belovèd head: But that was long ago. TCHAIKOVSKY: FIFTH SYMPHONY