1
On stems from silver woods
Carry him, young companions, to the glen
Where white Olympus broods;
Flushes of rustlers shall precede you then
By bush and glade
Low-thrilling and afraid;
And as along its curve of shore ye pass
The dark tarn ruddied with the pine shall glass,
Moving to hymns out of its lonely ken,
The boy’s light bier, with beaded rushes laid.
2
In beeches shall the fawn
An hoof suspend, to learn from that clear sound
His eager mate withdrawn
For ever unto free and sylvan ground.
Up in her hold
The wide-wing’d Azure cold
Mantling in gyre on gyre shall mark him come
By root-paven paths borne, and great bee’s hum
Swing through your brief procession, winding round
The endless alleys up that Mountain old.
3
In some low space of green
Where fleecy mists, bright runnels newly rain’d,
And springing wands are seen
But nothing yet to gnarlëd eld attain’d
Let his head nigh
The chrisom violet lie;
And put at hand the sling to him most dear,
The sheaf of arrows light, the dauntless spear,
The lute untroubled on the heart unstain’d;
Then, taking hands around him, sing good-bye.
4
Praise limbs that robb’d the cloud
Of vengeful eagles, and for this rough nest,
This egg, embraced the loud
And everlasting sea-crag’s salty breast!
Praise to the face
That smiled on nothing base!
Hymn ye the laughter of his happy soul—
His secret kindness to your secret dole;
The heavenly-minded brook shall mourn him best
When ye have kiss’d his cheek, quitting the place.
5
This ditty from the brake,
This rainbow from the waters, fades; and Night
That little pyre shall take
In flame and cloud;—but O! when the bloom of light
With breathless glow
Along the tops of snow
Tells out to all the valleys Night is done,—
Think of the boy, ye young companions bright,
Not without joy; for he hath loved and gone
As dews that on the uplands shine and go!