Classic Poem

It does not seem so many years ago,
Those nights when I lay shivering in my bed
And saw the candle-light bless my aunt's head
With its celestial sanctifying glow,
And heard her read strange story after story
Of Jonah, Adam, Moses, Esau, Ruth —
Of Solomon's old age and David's youth —
Things haunting, tender, terrible, or gory.
Still can I see the Queen of Sheba's hair;
And all real lions are but mockery
To him who once knew Daniel's; there's no tree
That can with Eve's great Paradise Tree compare:
A golden light gleamed through that ancient air
That leaves me homesick in modernity.