Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/213

Rh Like a crystal lamp unlighted, A home with its hearthstone dark.

"I've sailed on the silent river,   Still tacking from shore to shore, But the soulless opal never    A flash for a claimant bore.

"My lord from the castle yonder   Quite failed with the magic spell, For he envied a shooting-manor    A neighbor would never sell.

"My lady, with jewels shining,   Called not from the gem a ray, For the bitter sigh of the childless    Was biding beneath alway.

"The painter with nodding laurel,   The poet with fadeless bay, Courtier, and hind, and maiden,    Each bade me a moment stay;

"But the poet would be a Milton,   The painter-lad loved in vain, And the courtier s foot was gouty;    So I seaward turn again.

"Far down in the quiet valley   I'll tarry at eventide,