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Themes and Variations
The quail starts from her hidden nest,
Where shaking-grass with fern embraces;
The mountains glide acress the plain
And vanish into azure spaces.
Where shaking-grass with fern embraces;
The mountains glide acress the plain
And vanish into azure spaces.
Blue phantom-land! May Eden yet
Be somewhere in those unknown places?
The moorland spreads towards the west
Her purple waves and granite hoary;
No dream, no hint of death disturbs
Sweet nature’s story.
Be somewhere in those unknown places?
The moorland spreads towards the west
Her purple waves and granite hoary;
No dream, no hint of death disturbs
Sweet nature’s story.
‘And he who deeply slumbers here,’
—So speaks a voice, or I am dreaming—
Through all his sorrows, sin and fears,
Tasted of life and not its seeming,
He loved these plains, these morning hills,
He helped the fallen, sought his brother,
Gave and forgave; repented oft,
Nor would have changed his life for other.
He laboured not for bread alone,
His thread of faith was never broken,
Sometimes, from far beyond the stars,
He seemed to hear a message spoken,
Oh gently take this clover bloom
And leave him to the fading even,
The rivulet’s song, the visiting cloud,
The dew of heaven!
—So speaks a voice, or I am dreaming—
Through all his sorrows, sin and fears,
Tasted of life and not its seeming,
He loved these plains, these morning hills,
He helped the fallen, sought his brother,
Gave and forgave; repented oft,
Nor would have changed his life for other.
He laboured not for bread alone,
His thread of faith was never broken,
Sometimes, from far beyond the stars,
He seemed to hear a message spoken,
Oh gently take this clover bloom
And leave him to the fading even,
The rivulet’s song, the visiting cloud,
The dew of heaven!