Chapter LXXIII

Nearer to earth, it seem’d no more,
That beautiful, glorious, fairy shore;
Already, so many a mile in air,
I felt that a poison’d taint was there;
And the hawk and dove, they brought me back
To earth’s dark scenes, and its beaten track;
And then I remember’d, remember’d well,
As nearer, and nearer, and nearer I fell,
How often my spirit had groan’d, to be
On the dull time-side of Eternity;
How oft I had hated and loath’d my home,
And long’d to be off where the soul might roam,
And sigh’d as I gaz’d on the starlight above;
Oh—oh had I only the wings of a dove!