Summit And Vale
The light hangs over the mountain top,
But gray and misty the plain;
The sun’s a-glow in eternal snow,
But down in the valley, the rain.
And life is so, the sun a-glow
On the mountains far, while the rain’s below.
I sit and sew—a useless task it seems,
My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams—
The panoply of war, the martial tred of men,
Grim-faced, stern-eyed, gazing beyond the ken
Of lesser souls, whose eyes have not seen Death
Nor learned to hold their lives but as a breath—
But—I must sit and sew.
Oh, drink thou deep of the purple wine,
And it’s hey for love, for I love you so!
Oh, clasp me close, with your lips on mine,
And it’s hey for love, for I love you so!
The sea lies violet, deep, and wide,
My heart beats high with the rushing tide;
Was it fancy, beloved, the seagulls cried:
Wild seas of tossing, writhing waves,
A wreck half-sinking in the tortuous gloom;
One man clings desperately, while Boreas raves,
And helps to blot the rays of moon and star,
Then comes a sudden flash of light, which gleams on shores afar.