Classic Poem

O tame heart, and why are you weary and cannot rest?
here is the hearth with its glow and the roof that forbids the rain,
a swept and a garnish'd quiet, a peace: and were you not fain
to be gather'd in dusk and comfort and barter away the rest?

And is your dream now of riding away from a stricken field
on a lost and baleful eve, when the world went out in rain,
one of some few that rode evermore by the bridle-rein
of a great beloved chief, with high heart never to yield?

Was that you? and you ween you are back in your life of old
when you dealt as your pride allow'd and reck'd not of other rein?
Nay, tame heart, be not idle: it is but the ancient rain
that minds you of manhood forgone and the perilous joy of the bold.