Page:Maurine and Other Poems (1910).pdf/62

 And left the cloud to nestle in her breast. I fell and fell, but nevermore found rest— I fell and fell, but found no stopping place, Through leagues and leagues of never-ending space, While space illimitable stretched before.

And all these dreams but wearied me the more.

Familiar voices sounded in my room— Aunt Ruth’s, and Roy’s, and Helen’s: but they seemed A part of some strange fancy I had dreamed, And now remembered dimly.

Wrapped in gloom, My mind, o’ertaxed, lost hold of time at last, Ignored its future, and forgot its past, And groped along the present, as a light, Carried, uncovered, through the fogs of night, Will flicker faintly.

But I felt, at length, When March winds brought vague rumours of the spring, A certain sense of “restlessness with rest.” My aching frame was weary of repose, And wanted action.

Then slow-creeping strength Came back with Mem’ry, hand in hand, to bring And lay upon my sore and bleeding breast, Grim-visaged Recollection’s thorny rose. I gained, and failed. One day could ride and walk, The next would find me prostrate: while a flock Of ghostly thoughts, like phantom birds, would flit About the chambers of my heart, or sit, Pale spectres of the past, with folded wings, Perched, silently, upon the voiceless strings, That once resounded to Hope’s happy lays.

So passed the ever-changing April days. When May came, lightsome footed, o’er the lea, Accompanied by kind Aunt Ruth and Roy, I bade farewell to home with secret joy, And turned my wan face eastward to the sea. Roy planned our route of travel: for all lands Were one to him. Or Egypt’s burning sands, Or Alps of Switzerland, or stately Rome, All were familiar as the fields of home.