Now I am old, and the years delay;
But I know, I know, there will come a day,—
When April is over the Norland town.
And the loosened brooks from the hills go down,
When tears have quenched the sorrow of time,—
Wherein the earth shall rebuild her prime,
And the houses of dark be overthrown;
When the goblin maids shall love their own,—
Their arms forever unlaced from their hold
Of the earls of the sea on that alien wold,—
And the feckless light of their golden eyes
Shall forget the desire that made them wise;
When the hands of the foam shall beckon and flee.
And the Kelpie riders ride for the sea;
And the whip-poor-will the whole night long
Repeat his litanies of song,
Till morning whiten the world again,
And the flowers revive on Bareau Fen,
Over the acres of calm Rochelle
Fresh by the stream of the crystal well.