Poems (Spofford)/Longing
For works with similar titles, see Longing.
LONGING.
O bright wings, flashing round me in your flightWithin the hollow heaven's shining height,A sparkling sapphire and a ruby's blaze,The living light of these long Southern days;Redbirds, that on the dark sprays cling and swingAs if pomegranate flowers themselves took wing;Soft turtle-doves, that murmur in the shadeThe fig-tree on the summer sward has laid;O mocking-birds, that on the topmost boughWake all the world with music,—gladly nowTo all your song would I be deaf, and blindTo all your beauty, could I only mindAmong my orchard's cloud of apple blooms,Deep in the heart of all their dewy glooms,The robin's first soft flute-note when the lightBegins to stir in the dark nest of night!