Brumana

Oh shall I never never be home again?Meadows of England shining in the rainSpread wide your daisied lawns: your ramparts greenWith briar fortify, with blossom screenTill my far morning—and O streams that slowAnd pure and deep through plains and playlands go,For me your love and all your kingcups store,And—dark militia of the southern shore,Old fragrant friends—preserve me the last linesOf that long saga which you sung me, pines,When, lonely boy, beneath the chosen treeI listened, with my eyes upon the sea.

O traitor pines, you sang what life has foundThe falsest of fair tales.Earth blew a far-horn prelude all around,That native music of her forest home,While from the sea's blue fields and syren dalesShadows and light noon-spectres of the foamRiding the summer galesOn aery viols plucked an idle sound.

Hearing you sing, O trees,Hearing you murmur, "There are older seas,That beat on vaster sands,Where the wise snailfish move their pearly towersTo carven rocks and sculptured promont'ries,"Hearing you whisper, "LandsWhere blaze the unimaginable flowers."

Beneath me in the valley waves the palm,Beneath, beyond the valley, breaks the sea;Beneath me sleep in mist and light and calmCities of Lebanon, dream-shadow-dim,Where Kings of Tyre and Kings of Tyre did ruleIn ancient days in endless dynasty,And all around the snowy mountains swimLike mighty swans afloat in heaven's pool.

But I will walk upon the wooded hillWhere stands a grove, O pines, of sister pines,And when the downy twilight droops her wingAnd no sea glimmers and no mountain shinesMy heart shall listen still.For pines are gossip pines the wide world throughAnd full of runic tales to sigh or sing.'Tis ever sweet through pines to see the skyMantling a deeper gold or darker blue.'Tis ever sweet to lieOn the dry carpet of the needles brown,And though the fanciful green lizard stirAnd windy odours light as thistledownBreathe from the lavdanon and lavender,Half to forget the wandering and pain,Half to remember days that have gone by,And dream and dream that I am home again!