The Hollow

             I.     Fleet swallows soared and darted      'Neath empty vaults of blue;     Thick leaves close clung or parted      To let the sunlight through;     Each wild rose, honey-hearted,      Bowed full of living dew.              II.     Down deep, fair fields of Heaven,      Beat wafts of air and balm,     From southmost islands driven      And continents of calm;     Bland winds by which were given      Hid hints of rustling palm.              III.     High birds soared high to hover;      Thick leaves close clung to slip;     Wild rose and snowy clover      Were warm for winds to dip,     And one ungentle lover,      A bee with robber lip.              IV.     Dart on, O buoyant swallow!      Kiss leaves and willing rose!     Whose musk the sly winds follow,      And bee that booming goes; -     But in this quiet hollow      I'll walk, which no one knows.              V.     None save the moon that shineth      At night through rifted trees;     The lonely flower that twineth      Frail blooms that no one sees;     The whippoorwill that pineth;      The sad, sweet-swaying breeze;              VI.     The lone white stars that glitter;      The stream's complaining wave;     Gray bats that dodge and flitter;      Black crickets hid that rave;     And me whose life is bitter,      And one white head stone grave.