I must forget awhile the mellow flutes
And all the lyric wizardry of strings;
The fragile clarinet,
Tremulous over meadows rich with dawn,
Must knock against my vagrant heart
And throb and cry no more.
For I am shaken by the loveliness
And lights and laughter and beguiling song
Of all this siren world;
The regal beauty of women, round on round,
The swift, lithe slenderness of girls,
And children's loyal eyes,
Hill rivers and the lilac fringe of seas
Lazily plunging, glow of city nights
And faces in the glow—
These things have stolen my heart away, I lie
Parcelled abroad in sound and hue,
Dispersed through all I love.
I must go far away to a still place
And draw the shadows down across my eyes
And wait and listen there
For wings vibrating from beyond the stars,
Wide-ranging, swiftly winnowing wings
Bearing me back mine own.
So soon, now, I shall lie deep hidden away
From sound or sight, with hearing strangely dull
And heavy-lidded eyes,—
'T is time, O passionate soul, for me to go
Some far, hill-folded road apart
And learn the ways of peace.