(FROM THE GERMAN)
1
In the valley with moonlight streaming,
In depths of the forest free,
An old and forgotten dreaming
Is weaving its spell round me.
2
Dim columns, ghostlike and lonely,
Range darkly on yonder mound,
To the bat and the owlet only
Familiar trysting ground.
3
From the rocks come memories ringing,
The west wind whispers and calls,
And towers of gold are springing
From ruin and crumbling walls.
4
In a haze, through cloudland blowing,
Is wafted the old love--dead;
She draws me towards her, glowing
With radiance of youth that’s fled.
5
Like bliss from a far past carried
Comes softly her whispered vow;
And what in the years lay buried
Stands living before me now.
6
Then, soft as it came, the vision
Is gone; from the forest space,
Where we kissed in the woods Elysian
Has faded her vanished face.
7
The golden dreamland of wonder
Has fled on the passing wind,
The desolate walls up yonder
Are all that remain behind.
8
And, under the branches sweeping,
I walk in the dawn alone,
For day on the hills is creeping
And the glory of dreams has flown.
❦