The Bookworm

The whole day long I sit and read
Of days when men were men indeed
And women knightlier far:
I fight with Joan of Arc; I fall
With Talbot; from my castle-wall
I watch the guiding star...

But when at last the twilight falls
And hangs about the book-lined walls
And creeps across the page,
Then the enchantment goes, and I
Close up my volumes with a sigh
To greet a narrower age.

Home through the pearly dusk I go
And watch the London lamplight glow
Far off in wavering lines:
A pale grey world with primrose gleams,
And in the West a cloud that seems
My distant Apennines.

O Life! so full of truths to teach,
Of secrets I shall never reach,
O world of Here and Now;
Forgive, forgive me, if a voice,
A ghost, a memory be my choice
And more to me than Thou!