A light beyond the eastern skies

With love unfold the weary eyes

That lightless shades of night has seen

To re-behold the golden spring;

Now shining fall the laden tears

As dripping dew when young the year

Still pure aroused the flowering sun

In lofty heavens shimmering

The graying fruit that night had wrought

Upon the floor sow seeds of thought,

And on the yew the buds were new

As pink they opened blossoming;

The call of larks was high and strong,

The swinging branches green and long;

Yet in the leaves a brown was seen

And there I halted wondering.

That which is fair falls from the sky:

The thinning veil of spring’s design,

Till withered lay the aging leaves

Of countless years fell quivering;

Then dim will creep the forest shade

When light should fail, when sun should fade,

And Spring should lay her cold remains

In wintry gardens shivering

Yet all that which is beauty named-

A form so fair by man untamed,

Shall with the wheeling golden sun

Arise by morning glistening;

Then lightened be the dreamland shore

Where lyrics seldom sung before

Dare now once more to fly in wake

Of climbing sunlight sparkling.

So this I thought as first leaves fell

At each their knell against the floor

Where green of yore they lay awake;

And there I spake, ‘I’ll mourn you not’