Page:Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, 1846).djvu/117

Rh THE TEACHER'S MONOLOGUE.

room is quiet, thoughts alone

People its mute tranquillity;

The yoke put off, the long task done,—

I am, as it is bliss to be,

Still and untroubled. Now, I see,

For the first time, how soft the day

O'er waveless water, stirless tree,

Silent and sunny, wings its way.

Now, as I watch that distant hill,

So faint, so blue, so far removed,

Sweet dreams of home my heart may fill,

That home where I am known and loved:

It lies beyond; yon azure brow

Parts me from all Earth holds for me;

And, morn and eve, my yearnings flow

Thitherward tending, changelessly.

My happiest hours, aye! all the time,

I love to keep in memory,

Lapsed among moors, ere life's first prime

Decayed to dark anxiety.

Sometimes, I think a narrow heart

Makes me thus mourn those far away,

And keeps my love so far apart

From friends and friendships of to-day;