Take courage, heart. Why dost thou faint and falter?
Why is thy light turned darkness ere the noon?
The wind blows west, no clouds the heaven alter,
Night comes not yet; with night, too, comes the moon.
"Alas, alas! the dewy morwing weather,
The tender light that on the meadows lay,
When Youth and Hope and I set out together,—
Light Youth, false Hope, that left me on the way!"
Take courage yet; thou are not unattended:
See Love and Peace keep step on either hand.
How green the vales! The sky how blue! How splendid
The strong white sunshine sleeps across the land!
"Alas the thrushes' song hath long had ending
I heard at dawn among the pine woods cool.
The brook is still, whose rocky stair descending,
I drank at sunrise from each rosy pool."
The noon is still; the songs of dawn are over;
Yet turn not back to prove thy memories vain.
The mist upon the hills canst thou recover,
Or bring to eastern skies the bloom again?
But courage still! Without return or swerving,
Across the globe's huge shadow keep the track,
Till, unperceived, the slow meridian's curving,
That leads thee onward, yet shall lead thee back,
To stand again with daybreak on the mountains,
And, where the paths of night and morning meet,
To drink once more of youth's forgotten fountains,
When thou hast put the world between thy feet.