Classic Poem

Old poems lay before me, — and I knew
Again the floating dreams of early days
Which led me captive underneath the blaze
Of summer, when the sea was wide and blue
In front, — the cliff beneath me, — and when you
Walked as a queen along those windy ways,
And held towards me a sweet crown of bays
Wet with Youth's crystal sinless globes of dew.

Now for the morning the calm sunset shines.
Before me, — and the sun's remorseless eye
Is red between tall pillars of black pines
Wherethrough I have to travel by and bye;
Marching alone through their imposing lines,
Dim, vast, and imperturbable, and high.