Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/381

 ODE TO FANCY 37 1

No gorgeous landscapes as of old appear.

Seen through thy oriels, warm with rosy stain. The light that guides me now is coldly clear ; Thy glorious visions come not back again ; Their tints decay. Thy painted windows Truth hath oped so wide, That the gay colors melt on every side To leaden gray.

My castles built in air are vanishing ;

The spirit voices of the evening cease ; The sphery music will no longer ring ;

Yon bow hath broke its covenant of peace, Though radiant still. The bond 'twixt man and the immortal powers Hath g^own to be the work of sportive showers That sweep the hill.

Thine eye, averted now, no more from far

Will read my fortune in some twinkling star ;

No Naiad sports upon the flood,

The elves are banished from the wood,

No mermaids sing in coral caves,

No sea-god rides upon the waves,

And nymphs that guarded grove and rill,

And dwarfs that peopled every hill,

And knights of fairy land, and ladies gay, —

All fled ! The enchanted gardens fade away.

And only leave behind sad visions of decay.

And yet, why should I mourn, joy of my youth.

That thou hast found an enemy in Truth ?

Thine uncurbed brood, through ages drear and blind,

Have ruled as ruthless tyrants o'er mankind.

Ah, happy when, no more misled by thee.

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