Wandering like a ghostlywhisper, through the dreaming darkness round!
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Wandering, like a fearfulwarning, where the withered twilight broke
Through a mass of mournful tresses, drooping down the Native Oak.

And I caught a glimpse of sunset fading from a far-off wild,
As I sat me down to fancy, like a thoughtful, wistful child -

Sat me down to fancy what might mean those hollow, hopeless tones,
Sooming round the swooning silence, dying out in smothered moans!

What might mean that muffled sobbing? Did a lonelyphantom wail,
Pent amongst those tangled branches barring out the moonlight pale?

Wept it for that gleam of glory wasting from the forest aisles;
For that fainting gleam of glory sad with flickering, sickly smiles?

In these woodlands I was restless! I had seen a light depart,
And an ache for something vanished filled and chilled my longing heart,

And I linked my thoughts together - ``All seemed still and dull to-day,
But a painfulsymbol groweth from the shine that pales away!

This may not be idle dreaming; if the spirit roams,'' I said,
``This is surely one, a wanderer from the ages which have fled!

Who can look beyond the darkness; who can see so he may tell
Where the sunsets all have gone to; where the souls that leave us dwell?

``This might be a loving exile, full with faded thoughts returned,
Seeking for familiar faces, friends for whom he long had yearned.

Here his fathers must have sojourned - here his people may have died,
Or, perchance, to distant forests all were scattered far and wide.

So he moans and so he lingers! weeping o'er the wasted wild;
Weeping o'er the desolation, like a lost, benighted child!

So he moans, and so he lingers! Hence these fitful, fretful sighs,
Deep within the oak tree solemn! Hence these weary, weary cries!

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``Or who knows but that some secret lies beneath yon dismal mound?

Ha! a dreary, dreadful secret must be buried underground!
Not a ragged blade of verdure - not one root of moss is there;

Who hath torn the grasses from it - wherefore is that barrow bare?
Darkness shuts the forest round me. Here I stand and, O my God!

This may be some injured spirit raving round and round the sod.
Hush! the tempest, how it travels! Blood hath here been surely shed -

Hush! the thunder, how it mutters! Oh, the unrequited Dead!''
Came a footfall past the water - came a wild man through the gloom,

Down he stooped and faced the current, silent as the silent tomb;
Down he stooped and lapped the ripples: not a single word he spoke,

But I whispered, ``He can tell me of the Secret in the Oak?
Very thoughtful seems that forehead; many legends he may know;

Many tales and old traditions linked to what is here below!
I must ask him - rest I cannot - though my life upon it hung -

Though these wails are waxing louder, I must give my thoughts a tongue.
``Shake that silence from you, wild man! I have looked into your face,

Hoping I should learn the story there about this fearful place.
Slake your thirst, but stay and tell me: did your heart with terror beat,

When you stepped across the bare and blasted hillock at your feet?
Hearken to these croons so wretched deep within the dusk boughs pent!

Hold you not some strange tradition coupled with this strange lament?
When your tribe about their camp-fires hear that hollow, broken cry,

Do they hint of deeds mysterious, hidden in the days gone by?''
But he rose like one bewildered, shook his head and glided past;

Huddling whispers hurried after, hissing in the howling blast!
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Now a sheet of lurid splendour swept athwart the mountain spire,
And a midnightsquall came trumping down on zigzag paths of fire!

Through the tumult dashed a torrent flanking out in foaming streams,
Whilst the woodlands groaned and muttered like a monster vexed with dreams.

Then I swooned away in horror. Oh! that shriek which rent the air,
Like the voice of some fell demon harrowed by a mad despair.

HARPS WE LOVE
THE harp we love hath a royal burst!

Its strings are mighty forest trees;
And branches, swaying to and fro,

Are fingers sounding symphonies.
The harp we love hath a solemn sound!

And rocks amongst the shallow seas
Are strings from which the rolling waves

Draw forth their stirring harmonies.
The harp we love hath a low sweet voice!

Its strings are in the bosom deep,
And Love will press those hidden chords

When all the baser passions sleep.
WAITING AND WISHING

I LOITER by this surging sea,
Here, by this surging, sooming sea,

Here, by this wailing, wild-faced sea,
Dreaming through the dreamy night;

Yearning for a strange delight!
Will it ever, ever, ever fly to me,

By this surging sea,
By this surging, sooming sea,

By this wailing, wild-faced sea?
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I know some gentle spirit lives,
Some loving, lonely spirit lives,

Some melancholy spirit lives,
Walking o'er the earth for me,

Searching round the world for me!
Will she ever, ever, ever hither come?

Where the waters roam,
Where the sobbing waters roam!

Where the raving waters roam!
All worn and wasted by the storms,

All gapped and fractured by the storms,
All split and splintered by the storms,

Overhead the caverns groan,
Gloomy, ghastly caverns groan! -

Will she ever, ever, ever fill this heart?
Peace, O longing heart!

Peace, O longing, beating heart!
Peace, O beating, weary heart!

THE WILD KANGAROO
THE rain-clouds have gone to the deep -

The East like a furnace doth glow;
And the day-spring is flooding the steep,

And sheening the landscape below.
Oh, ye who are gifted with souls

That delight in the music of birds,
Come forth where the scattered mist rolls,

And listen to eloquent words!
Oh, ye who are fond of the sport,

And would travel yon wilderness through,
Gather - each to his place - for a life-stirring chase,

In the wake of the wild Kangaroo!
Gather - each to his place -

For a life-stirring chase
In the wake of the wild Kangaroo!

Beyond the wide rents of the fog,
The trees are illumined with gold;

And the bark of the shepherd's brave dog
Shoots away from the sheltering fold.

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Down the depths of yon rock-border'd glade,

A torrent goes foaming along;
And the blind-owls retire into shade,

And the bell-bird beginneth its song.
By the side of that yawning abyss,

Where the vapours are hurrying to,
We will merrily pass, looking down to the grass