It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race
That hoard and sleep and feed and know not me I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least, but honored of them all; And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades Forever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, And this gray spirit yearning in desire To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. This is my son, mine own Telemachus, To whom I leave the scepter and the isle — Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill This labor, by slow prudence to make mild A rugged people, and through soft degrees Subdue them to the useful and the good. Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere Of common duties, decent not to fail In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail :
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners Souls that have toiled and wrought, and thought with
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads - you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil; Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
"I'm growing old, I've sixty years; I've labored all my life in vain: In all that time of hopes and fears I've failed my dearest wish to gain. I see full well that here below
Bliss unalloyed there is for none; My prayer will ne'er fulfillment know. I never have seen Carcassonne,
I never have seen Carcassonne!
"You see the city from the hill,
It lies beyond the mountains blue, And yet to reach it one must still
Five long and weary leagues pursue, And to return as many more!
Ah, had the vintage plenteous grown! The grape withheld its yellow store! I shall not look on Carcassonne,
I shall not look on Carcassonne!
"They tell me every day is there Not more or less than Sunday gay; In shining robes and garments fair The people walk upon their way. One gazes there on castle walls
As grand as those of Babylon, A bishop and two generals!
I do not know fair Carcassonne, I do not know fair Carcassonne!
"The vicar's right; he says that we Are ever wayward, weak and blind, He tells us in his homily
Ambition ruins all mankind;
Yet could I there two days have spent While still the autumn sweetly shone,
Ah, me! I might have died content When I had looked on Carcassonne, When I had looked on Carcassonne!
Thy pardon, Father, I beseech,
In this my prayer if I offend: One something sees beyond his reach From childhood to his journey's end. My wife, our little boy Aignon,
Have traveled even to Narbonne; My grandchild has seen Perpignon, And I have not seen Carcassonne, And I have not seen Carcassonne!
So crooned one day, close by Limoux, A peasant double-bent with age; "Rise up, my friend," said I, “with you I'll go upon this pilgrimage."
We left next morning his abode,
But (Heaven forgive him) halfway on, The old man died upon the road; He never gazed on Carcassonne,
Each mortal has his Carcassonne!
JOHN REUBEN THOMPSON.
SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE
Out of the hills of Habersham, Down the valleys of Hall,
I hurry amain to reach the plain, Run the rapid and leap the fall, Split at the rock and together again,
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