See, the fire is sinking low,
Dusky red the embers glow,
       &nbsp While above them still I cower,
While a moment more I linger,
Though the clock, with lifted finger,
       &nbsp Points beyond the midnight hour.

Sings the blackened log a tune
Learned in some forgotten June
       &nbsp From a school-boy at his play,
When they both were young together,
Heart of youth and summer weather
       &nbsp Making all their holiday.

And the night-wind rising, hark!
How above there in the dark,
       &nbsp In the midnight and the snow,
Ever wilder, fiercer, grander,
Like the trumpets of Iskander,
       &nbsp All the noisy chimneys blow!

Every quivering tongue of flame
Seems to murmur some great name,
       &nbsp Seems to say to me, "Aspire!"
But the night-wind answers, "Hollow
Are the visions that you follow,
       &nbsp Into darkness sinks your fire!"
Then the flicker of the blaze
Gleams on volumes of old days,
       &nbsp Written by masters of the art,
Loud through whose majestic pages
Rolls the melody of ages,
       &nbsp Throb the harp-strings of the heart.

And again the tongues of flame
Start exulting and exclaim:
       &nbsp "These are prophets, bards, and seers;
In the horoscope of nations,
Like ascendant constellations,
       &nbsp They control the coming years."

But the night-wind cries: "Despair!
Those who walk with feet of air
       &nbsp Leave no long-enduring marks;
At God's forges incandescent
Mighty hammers beat incessant,
       &nbsp These are but the flying sparks.

"Dust are all the hands that wrought;
Books are sepulchres of thought;
       &nbsp The dead laurels of the dead
Rustle for a moment only,
Like the withered leaves in lonely
       &nbsp Churchyards at some passing tread."
Suddenly the flame sinks down;
Sink the rumors of renown;
       &nbsp And alone the night-wind drear
Clamors louder, wilder, vaguer,—
"'T is the brand of Meleager
       &nbsp Dying on the hearth-stone here!"

And I answer,—"Though it be,
Why should that discomfort me?
       &nbsp No endeavor is in vain;
Its reward is in the doing,
And the rapture of pursuing
       &nbsp Is the prize the vanquished gain."