Classic Poem

Heart of Earth, let us be gone
From this rock where we have stayed
While the sun has risen and shone
Ten thousand times, and thrown our shade
Always in the same self-place.

Now the night draws on apace;
The day is dying on the height;
The wind brings cold sea-fragrance here,
And cries, and restless murmurings,
Of wings and feet that take to flight
When night is near, —
Of furry feet and feathery wings
That take their joyous flight at will
Away and over the hiding hill,
And into the lands where the sun has fled.
O let us go, as they have sped, —
The soft swift shapes that left us here,
The gentle things that came and went,
And left us in imprisonment!
Let us be gone, as they have gone,
Away, and into the hidden lands; —
From rock and turf our roots uptear,
Break from the clinging keeping bands
Out of this long imprisoning break;
At last, our sunward journey take,
And far, to-night, and farther on,
Heart of Earth, let us be gone!