To a Lady, LXXIII

Nearer to earth, it seem’d no more, That beautiful, glorious, fairy shore; Already, so many a mile in air, I felt that a poison’d taint was there; And the hawk and dove, they brought me back To earth’s dark scenes, and its beaten track; And then I remember’d, remember’d well, As nearer, and nearer, and nearer I fell, How often my spirit had groan’d, to be On the dull time-side of Eternity; How oft I had hated and loath’d my home, And long’d to be off where the soul might roam, And sigh’d as I gaz’d on the starlight above; Oh—oh had I only the wings of a dove!