Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/384

328 LXIX

LINES BY CLAUDIA

not sleep; 'twas noon of day;

I saw the burning sunshine fall,

The long grass bending where I lay,

The blue sky brooding over all.

I heard the mellow hum of bees,

And singing birds and sighing trees,

And far away in woody dell

The music of the Sabbath bell.

I did not dream remembrance still

Clasped round my heart its fetter chill;

But I am sure the soul is free

To leave its clay a little while,

Or how in exile misery

Could I have seen my country smile?

In English fields my limbs were laid,

With English turf beneath my head;

My spirit wandered o'er that shore

Where nought but it may wander more.

Yet if the soul can thus return,

I need not, and I will not mourn;