Dreamless Life

Philip Bourke Marston

1850 to 1887

Poem Image

I have a work to do, which being done 
I will go out from men, and sit apart. 
And give myself up wholly to my heart. 
The winds, the moon, the ocean, and the sun. 
And all the rain-vexed streams in spring that run 
To rest in the broad rivers; birds that start 
The fields with sudden singing, as they dart 
Through eve aglow with fire, or dawns begun, — 

These shall my hidden thoughts interpret right. 
So, when I walk far off from any strife, 
Folded in quiet of sequestered life, 
Through some pale autumn evening's lessening light. 
My soul may catch her voice, discern her face, 
And, yearning, lapse in rapture of embrace.