DISTANT VOICES
I left my home for travelling;
Because I heard the strange birds sing
In foreign skies, and felt their wing
Brush past my soul impatiently;
I saw the bloom on flower and tree
That only grows beyond the sea.
Methought the distant voices spake
More wisdom than near tongues can make;
I followed—lest my heart should break.
And what is past is past and done.
I dreamt, and here the dream begun:
I saw a salmon in the sun
Leap from the river to the shore—
Ah! strange mishap, so wounded sore,
To his sweet stream to turn no more.
A bird from 'neath his mother's breast.
Spread his weak wings in vain request;
Never again to reach his nest.
I saw a blossom bloom too soon
Upon a summer's afternoon;
'Twill breathe no more beneath the moon.
I woke, warmed 'neath a foreign sky
Where locust blossoms bud and die.
Strange birds called to me flashing by.
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