| I SAT me down and looked around | |
| The little lamp-lit room, and saw | |
| Where many pictures gloomed and frowned | |
| In sad, still life, nor made a sound— | |
| A many for one to draw: | 5 |
| Shadow and sea and ground | |
| Held by the artist’s law, | |
| Beauty without a flaw, | |
| All with a sense profound. | |
| |
| One teeming brain was wood and hill, | 10 |
| And sloping pastures wide and green, | |
| And cool, deep seas where rivers spill | |
| The snows of mountains far and chill, | |
| Sad pools where the shadows lean. | |
| Old trees that hang so still. | 15 |
| Fields which the reapers glean. | |
| Plains where the wind is keen. | |
| Each with a nerve to thrill. | |
| |
| Elusive figures swayed and yearned | |
| By lake and misty greenwood dim, | 20 |
| Seeking in sorrow: they had learned | |
| In one night’s dream might be discerned, | |
| A pace from the world’s rim, | |
| Wages their woe had earned, | |
| Rest from the labour grim, | 25 |
| God and the peace of Him— | |
| These in a frame interned. | |
| |
| On through the forest, one step on, | |
| One step, O Powers, let me attain | |
| This hard, dead step, let me be gone | 30 |
| Back where I and the morning shone, | |
| Back ere the dream shall wane | |
| When I and a star were one. | |
| Seen through the veils of pain | |
| Glory shall shine again: | 35 |
| God, has the vision gone? | |
