National Lyrics, and Songs for Music/And I too in Arcadia
SONGS FOR SUMMER HOURS.
I.
AND I TOO IN ARCADIA.
A celebrated picture of Poussin represents a band of shepherd youths and maidens suddenly checked in their wanderings, and affected with various emotions by the sight of a tomb which bears this inscription—"Et in Arcadia ego."
They have wandered in their glee
With the butterfly and bee;
They have climb'd o'er heathery swells,
They have wound thro' forest dells;
Mountain moss hath felt their tread,
Woodland streams their way have led;
Flowers, in deepest shadowy nooks,
Nurslings of the loneliest brooks,
Unto them have yielded up
Fragrant bell and starry cup:
Chaplets are on every brow—
—What hath stayed the wanderers[2] now?
Lo! a grey and rustic tomb,
Bowered amidst the rich wood-gloom ;
Whence these words their stricken spirits melt,
—"I too, Shepherds! in Arcadia dwelt."
There is many a summer sound
That pale sepulchre around;
Thro' the shade young birds are glancing,
Insect-wings in sun-streaks dancing;
Glimpses of blue festal skies
Pouring in when soft winds rise;
Violets o'er the turf below
Shedding out their warmest glow;
Yet a spirit not its own
O'er the greenwood now is thrown!
Something of an under-note
Thro' its music seems to float,
Something of a stillness grey
Creeps across the laughing day:
Something, dimly from those old words felt,
—"I too, Shepherds! in Arcadia dwelt."
Was some gentle kindred maid
In that grave with dirges laid?
Some fair creature, with the tone
Of whose voice a joy is gone,
Leaving melody and mirth
Poorer on this alter'd earth?
Is it thus? that so they stand,
Dropping flowers from every hand?
Flowers, and lyres, and gather'd store
Of red wild-fruit prized no more?
—No! from that bright band of morn,
Not one link hath yet been torn;
'Tis the shadow of the tomb
Falling o'er the summer-bloom,
O'er the flush of love and life
Passing with a sudden strife;
'Tis the low prophetic breath
Murmuring from that house of death,
Whose faint whisper thus their hearts can melt,
"I too, Shepherds! in Arcadia dwelt."