Page:Landon in Pictorial Album.pdf/4

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The reapers are upon the plain, The gleaming sickle cuts its way, The startled birds forsake the grain, And seek the green wood’s sheltered day.

Two, with the ripe corn falling near, Are knelt a little way apart, Alone, each only asks to hear The beating of the other's heart.

Ah, happy! nothing life can bring Brings back that first sweet hour again, When Love awakened Hope to fling Hues,—lovely, fugitive,—and vain!

Touched with the light of other spheres, A light how pure and tremulous, The girl's soft eyes are filled with tears Too lovely for our earth and us.

But he is joyous, for his mind Flings round its native element;— Lofty, impassioned, unconfined, Genius and Love are confident:

Both conscious of their native heaven, Not of the earth which they must tread, Till Genius wastes its starry leven, And Love droops down his radiant head.