Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/166

156 XII

, from the first my soul was outward-bound,

And in my eyes was set their sailor-gaze

Haunting the distance; all my nursing Mays

Broke into blossom to the breakers' sound;

Scarce-budded, from the sweet paternal ground

Was I drawn forth to wandering nights and day

Early despairs, swift ripenings, quick decays,

And all that in youth's chrysalis is found.

And, yet a boy, I sailed the seas of thought,

And o'er the vague of passion darkly went,

Adventuring all things for the thing I sought,

The true, the fair, the dear, the excellent;

And, trying all things, home I nothing brought,

Till love unto my side grew eloquent.