Page:Collected poems of Flecker.djvu/216

 Hearing you sing, O trees,

Hearing you murmur, "There are older seas,

That beat on vaster sands,

Where the wise snailfish move their pearly towers

To carven rocks and sculptured promont'ries,"

Hearing you whisper, "Lands

Where blaze the unimaginable flowers."

Beneath me in the valley waves the palm,

Beneath, beyond the valley, breaks the sea;

Beneath me sleep in mist and light and calm

Cities of Lebanon, dream-shadow-dim,

Where Kings of Tyre and Kings of Tyre did rule

In ancient days in endless dynasty,

And all around the snowy mountains swim

Like mighty swans afloat in heaven's pool.

But I will walk upon the wooded hill

Where stands a grove, O pines, of sister pines,

And when the downy twilight droops her wing

And no sea glimmers and no mountain shines

My heart shall listen still.

For pines are gossip pines the wide world through

And full of runic tales to sigh or sing.

'Tis ever sweet through pines to see the sky

Mantling a deeper gold or darker blue.

'Tis ever sweet to lie

On the dry carpet of the needles brown,

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