Lake Lyrics and Other Poems

by William Wilfred Campbell

 

BY HURON'S SHORE

 
HERE amid the smoke of cities,
Where far heaven never pities
Earth, and kisses her with flowers;
Through the weary, sunless hours,
    How I long for Huron’s shore:
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How I long for Huron’s beaches,
Where the wind-swept, shining reaches
    Wind in mists and are no more.

How I long for sky and water,
Where is never dearth of thought, or
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Lack of love for heaven’s blue;
Where all nature loveth true;
    By the sky-rimmed, shining floor,
By the black, wet caverned ledges,
By the sands where windy sedge is
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    Kissed by Huron evermore.

How I long for dawns in-blowing,
For the day-bloom, ruddier growing,
Into morning’s perfect flower;
Watched in sweet, wind rustled hour,
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    Spirit-wrapt, by Huron’s shore,
Where the stars die out like tapers,
And the islands, clad in vapors,
    Rise at heaven’s opened door,

Where the great lake’s shining bosom
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Rocks like some blue, petalled blossom,
Blossomed ’mid the night’s sweet care,
Wind-shook in the morning air;
    How I long for Huron’s shore,
Just to watch the dawns uprising,
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Over wave and crag, surprising
    Earth to life and love once more.

How I long for suns, low-setting,
Through the even’s vaulted fretting,
Till the stars resumed their marches
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Past the sky’s great vaulted arches,
    Over earth’s cathedral floor.
Then it was we stood together,
She and I, while God’s glad weather
    Haze-wrapt heaven, wave and shore.
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O to stand by Huron’s beaches,
By those glorious, sun-bathed reaches,
In that dream of light and mist,
Earth-embraced and heaven-kissed,
    Just to stand by Huron’s shore,
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Just to know the old thoughts banished,
Just to dream a face long vanished,—
    Vanished, dead, to come no more.