Distant Voices

I left my home for travelling;      Because I heard the strange birds sing      In foreign skies, and felt their wing      Brush past my soul impatiently;      I saw the bloom on flower and tree      That only grows beyond the sea.      Methought the distant voices spake      More wisdom than near tongues can make;      I followed-lest my heart should break.      And what is past is past and done.      I dreamt, and here the dream begun:      I saw a salmon in the sun      Leap from the river to the shore-      Ah! strange mishap, so wounded sore,      To his sweet stream to turn no more.      A bird from neath his mothers breast,      Spread his weak wings in vain request;      Never again to reach his nest.      I saw a blossom bloom too soon      Upon a summers afternoon;      Twill breathe no more beneath the moon.      I woke, warmed neath a foreign sky      Where locust blossoms bud and die,      Strange birds called to me flashing by.      And dusky faces passed and woke      The echoes with the words they spoke-      -The same old tales as other folk.      A truce to roaming!    Never more      Ill leave the home I loved of yore.      But strangers meet me at the door.      * * * * *      I left my home still travelling,      For yet I hear the strange birds sing,      And foreign flowers rare perfumes bring.      I hear a distant voice, more wise      Than others are neath foreign skies.      Ill find-perhaps in paradise.