As Birds in Flight

I love thee, lakes, and all thy glorious world,

Blue, wrinkled, mist- encircled ' neath the sky.

And far unto thy realm of waves impearled

My heart, bird- like, doth fly.

Thou art to me as love to lover sad,

As sun to flower, as husband unto wife;

I think of thee and all the hours are glad,

And dead are pain and strife.

Thou comest to me as cooling draught to one,

Hot parched and faint with unassuagéd thirst;

My spirit tranced within thy air and sun

Forgets the world is cursed.

Thou knowest nor hate, nor death, nor sin, nor pain,

Nor woeful partings, bitterness and tears;

But only days that sleep to wake again,

Across thy golden years.