Sympathy

As one within a moated tower,	
    I lived my life alone;	
And dreamed not other granges’ dower,	
    Nor ways unlike mine own.	
I thought I loved. But all alone
    As one within a moated tower	
I lived. Nor truly knew	
    One other mortal fortune’s hour.	
As one within a moated tower,	
    One fate alone I knew.
Who hears afar the break of day	
    Before the silvered air	
Reveals her hooded presence gray,	
    And she, herself, is there?	
I know not how, but now I see
    The road, the plain, the pluming tree,	
The carter on the wain.	
    On my horizon wakes a star.	
The distant hillsides wrinkled far	
    Fold many hearts’ domain.
On one the fire-worn forests sweep,	
    Above a purple mountain-keep	
And soar to domes of snow.	
    One heart has swarded fountains deep	
Where water-lilies blow:
    And one, a cheerful house and yard,	
With curtains at the pane,	
    Board-walks down lawns all clover-starred,	
And full-fold fields of grain.	
    As one within a moated tower
I lived my life alone;	
    And dreamed not other granges’ dower	
Nor ways unlike mine own.	
    But now the salt-chased seas uncurled	
And mountains trooped with pine
    Are mine. I look on all the world	
And all the world is mine.
Credit

This poem is in the public domain.