Flower-de-Luce (Collection)/The Wind over the Chimney
THE WIND OVER THE CHIMNEY.
SEE, the fire is sinking low,Dusky red the embers glow,While above them still I cower,While a moment more I linger,Though the clock, with lifted finger,Points beyond the midnight hour.
Sings the blackened log a tuneLearned in some forgotten JuneFrom a school-boy at his play,When they both were young together,Heart of youth and summer weatherMaking all their holiday.
And the night-wind rising, hark!How above there in the dark,In the midnight and the snow,Ever wilder, fiercer, grander,Like the trumpets of Iskander,All the noisy chimneys blow!
Every quivering tongue of flameSeems to murmur some great name,Seems to say to me, "Aspire!"But the night-wind answers, "HollowAre the visions that you follow,Into darkness sinks your fire!"
Then the flicker of the blazeGleams on volumes of old days,Written by masters of the art,Loud through whose majestic pagesRolls the melody of ages,Throb the harp-strings of the heart.
And again the tongues of flameStart exulting and exclaim:"These are prophets, bards, and seers;In the horoscope of nations,Like ascendant constellations,They control the coming years."
But the night-wind cries: "Despair!Those who walk with feet of airLeave no long-enduring marks;At God's forges incandescentMighty hammers beat incessant,These are but the flying sparks.
"Dust are all the hands that wrought;Books are sepulchres of thought;The dead laurels of the deadRustle for a moment only,Like the withered leaves in lonelyChurchyards at some passing tread."
Suddenly the flame sinks down;Sink the rumors of renown;And alone the night-wind drearClamors louder, wilder, vaguer,—"'T is the brand of MeleagerDying on the hearth-stone here!"
And I answer,—"Though it be,Why should that discomfort me?No endeavor is in vain;Its reward is in the doing,And the rapture of pursuingIs the prize the vanquished gain."