Page:The poems of Emma Lazarus volume 1.djvu/56

42 To dream the future void of grief and pain, And muse upon the past, in reveries More sweet for knowledge that the present is Not all complete, with mist and clouds and rain. Look westward o’er the steaming rain-washed slopes, Now satisfied with sunshine, and behold Those lustrous clouds, as glorious as our hopes, Softened with feathery fleece of downy gold, In all fantastic, huddled shapes uprolled, Floating like dreams, and melting silently, In the blue upper regions of pure sky. The eye is filled with beauty, and the heart Rejoiced with sense of life and peace renewed ; And yet at such an hour as this, upstart Vague myriad longings, restless, unsubdued, And causeless tears from melancholy mood, Strange discontent with earth s and nature s best, Desires and yearnings that may find no rest. Serene was morning with clear, winnowed air, But threatening soon the low, blue mass of cloud Rose in the west, with mutterings faint and rare At first, but waxing frequent and more loud. Thick sultry mists the distant hill-tops shroud;