Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

VI. Animate Nature

The Departure of the Swallow

William Howitt (1792–1879)

AND is the swallow gone?

Who beheld it?

Which way sailed it?

Farewell bade it none?

No mortal saw it go;—

But who doth hear

Its summer cheer

As it flitteth to and fro?

So the freed spirit flies!

From its surrounding clay

It steals away

Like the swallow from the skies.

Whither? wherefore doth it go?

’T is all unknown;

We feel alone

That a void is left below.