Lit2Go

When I was young I always dreamed that Life was Long.
...There was a dyke I often climbed:—to hear the song
Of Sea;—to feel on my hot cheek its breath blow free
—And dream of Life; and things that Were to Be.

My spirit roamed so far! To me that View
Stretched wide to endless shore. Upon its magic blue
I felt my self:...And mine—its wealth of storied song,
—And space and time that but to changeless stars belong!

Upon that dyke I always dreamed that Life was Long!

Flowing swiftly twenty surging
Tide-waves go!
Southern landscapes mould my being.
(Northern visions always seeing—
Would they have yielded Larger Living?
Who can know!)

On Plymouth dyke I always dreamed that Life was Long!
And I am grown!—Again I came to view
The glowing greens: the magic Blue.
...Two easy steps; and I had climbed the dyke!—And then there lay
A scanty shore:—a tiny bay:...not blue—but gray.
The self-same dyke where I had dreamed that Life was Long!

My heart went faint and shrank in me. My cold cheek, too,
THe dry hot wind oppressed:—as did the meager view
My sorrowed soul: ... Where of old rode ships of storied song
Ebbed now the sere sea-weed…
...And I have now no time to do
What I had hoped:—
...When once I dreamed that Life was Long.