Behold how by the evening’s solar fire
The cabins are aglow in greenery.
The day is lived and done; the reeling sun
Hurries away to foster life elsewhere,
And I want wings to take me up out there
To strive and follow on!
I'd see the silent world unfold
Before my feet in endless evening rays,
The quiet of the dells, the hills ablaze,
The silver brooks that run to streams of gold.
My course would be a god’s, unhindered by
The savage mountain and its craggy face;
Already now the sea with sun-warmed bays
Lies open to the dazzled eye.
And now that solar goddess falls from sight;
But a new urge impels the mind:
I'm off to drink her everlasting light,
With day before me and the night behind,
The waves below and, overhead, the sky.
It is a gorgeous dream. The sun must flee.
Alas! These spirit wings will never be
Conjoined corporeal wings on which to fly!
Yet it is utterly innate
For feeling to want out, to soar anew
When aimless skylarks jubilate
Above us in the spacious blue,
When over craggy, pine-clad highlands
The opened wings of eagles roam,
And, over meadowlands and islands,
The striving crane goes gliding home.