Classic Poem

O tears that well up to my eyes,
And vague thoughts wandering thro' my brain,
Whence come ye? From what alien skies,
From what dim sorrow, what strange pain?

I hear old memories astir
In dusky twilights of the past:
O voices telling me of her,
My soul, whom now I know at last:

I know her not by any name,
But she with hope or fear is pale;
I see her ere this body came
From mortal womb with mortal wail.

Later and later through long years,
Through generations of dead men,
I see her in her mist of tears,
I see her in her shroud of pain.

I see her whom the æons have raised
From one dim birth to endless life;
I see her strive, regain, re-fail
Forever in the endless strife.

I see her, soul of man, and soul
Of woman, and in many lands:
Her eyes are fixt on some far goal
But she hath neither thrall nor bands.

On one day yet to come I see
This body pale and cold and dead:
The spirit once again made free
Hovers triumphant overhead.

Again, again, O endless day,
I see her in new forms pace on,
And ever with her on the way
Fair kindred souls in unison.

O wandering thoughts within my brain,
O voices speaking low to me,
O music sweet with stingless pain,
Bring clear the vision that I see!

O ecstasy of sound, O pain!
Too sad my heart, too sad the tears
It bringeth to my eyes again,
Too strange the hopes, too strange the fears.