Sagas of Vaster Britain: Poems of the Race, the Empire and the Divinity of Man

by William Wilfred Campbell

 

SANCTUARY

 
ALL the long years I have wandeerd wide,
    But now I am going home;
Far from the restless, seething tide,
    From the fever of hearts that roam;
Far from the streets of oppression and pride,
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    From the helot hate and hire,
To the sunset lands of eventide,
    The home of the heart’s desire.

There in the great lake country,
Walled in from the world’s mad dreams;

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Its envies, its joy that seems;
    Its loves, its hates, and its tears;
To lie and sleep where the sun drinks deep,
    Through the golden slumber of years.

You had my heart from the first;

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    And there would I lie at the last,
When the fever and fret that cursed,
    And the long heartache had passed;
To sleep through the long, long sleep,
    When the eye may see no more;
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At home and one with wind and sun,
    In your glory of haze and shore.