Classic Poem

Alone I wander out along the road;
The stony way gleams through the mist afar;
The night is calm; the waste lists to its God;
And star is speaking unto star.

In heaven wondrousness and grandeur reign;
The earth sleeps in a glow of soft blue sky.
Then why do I feel such distress, such pain?
What have I to await? or what regret have I?

Already I await no more from life;
And nothing in the past do I regret.
I seek for freedom, and an end to strife;
I only wish to sleep and to forget.

But not as in the tomb's too chilly rest,
My slumber through the ages I conceive
With all Life's vigour throbbing in my breast —
That with my breathing it should gently heave, —

That all the day and night, to soothe my ear,
A tender voice to me of love should sing;
And I must have, in green for ever near,
A dark oak bending o'er me, murmuring.