| |
| BEYOND the sea, I know not where, | |
| There is a town called Vivérols; | |
| I know not if ’tis near or far, | |
| I know not what its features are, | |
| I only know ’tis Vivérols. | 5 |
| |
| I know not if its ancient walls | |
| By vine and moss be overgrown; | |
| I know not if the night-owl calls | |
| From feudal battlements of stone | |
| Inhabited by him alone; | 10 |
| |
| I know not if mid meadow-lands | |
| Knee-deep in corn stands Vivérols; | |
| I know not if prosperity | |
| Has robbed its life of poësy. | |
| It could not be in Vivérols, | 15 |
| They would not call it Vivérols. | |
| |
| Perchance upon its terraced heights | |
| The grapes grow purple in the sun; | |
| Or down its wild untrodden crags, | |
| Its broken cliffs and frost-bit jags, | 20 |
| The mountain brooks unfettered run. | |
| |
| I cannot fancy Vivérols | |
| A place of gaudy pomp and show, | |
| A “Grand Establishment des Eaux,” | |
| Where to win back their withered lives | 25 |
| The roués of the city go. | |
| |
| Nor yet a place where poverty | |
| No ray of happiness lets in; | |
| Where wanders hopeless beggary | |
| Mid scenes of sorrow, want and sin, | 30 |
| It cannot be in Vivérols, | |
| There’s life and cheer in Vivérols! | |
| |
| Perhaps among the clouds it lies | |
| Mid vapors out from Dreamland blown; | |
| Built up from vague remembrances | 35 |
| That never yet had form in stone | |
| Its castles built of cloud alone. | |
| |
| I only know, should you and I | |
| Through its old walls of crumbling stone | |
| With moss and ivy overgrown | 40 |
| Together wander all alone, | |
| |
| No spot on Earth could be more fair | |
| Than ivy-covered Vivérols; | |
| No grass be greener anywhere | |
| No bluer sky, nor softer air | 45 |
| Than we should find in Vivérols, | |
| Together find in Vivérols. | |
| |
| Love, we may wander far or near, | |
| The sun shines o’er Vivérols, | |
| Green is the grass, the skies are clear: | 50 |
| No clouds obscure our pathway, dear, | |
| Where Love is there is Vivérols, | |
| There is no other Vivérols. | |
| |
