Hearthside

Half across the world from me

Lie the lands I'll never see

I, whose longing lives and dies

Where a ship has sailed away

I, that never close my eyes

But to look upon Cathay



Things I may not know nor tell

Wait, where older waters swell

Ways that flowered at Sappho's tread

Winds that sighed in Homer's strings

Vibrant with the singing dead

Golden with the dust of wings



Under deeper skies than mine

Quiet valleys dip and shine

Where their tender grasses heal

Ancient scars of trench and tomb

I shall never walk: nor kneel

Where the bones of poets bloom



If I seek a lovelier part

Where I travel goes my heart

Where I stray my thought must go

With me wanders my desire

Best to sit and watch the snow

Turn the lock, and poke the fire