Joy! Free, at last, from vulgar thrall: <br />No longer need my voice be dumb; <br />And quicker far than thou canst call, <br />O Italy, I come! <br /> <br />To feel me the adopted heir <br />Of Art and Nature wed and blent, <br />In days of trouble routed care; <br />In these will bring content. <br /> <br />To know the world is not a mart, <br />The soul a lackey, life a shame, <br />Will scare the past, allay its smart, <br />Almost annul the blame. <br /> <br />Away with all these makeshift toys, <br />Provisional for heart and sense, <br />Which kept a useful equipoise <br />'Gainst sheer indifference! <br /> <br />'Twas well enough, whilst ill at ease, <br />To parley with each passing whim, <br />Which, though accredited to please, <br />Was pleasure's pseudonym. <br /> <br />And if one pleasure lure me still- <br />Just one-I scarcely can but thank, <br />'Twere wisdom not to linger till <br />It, like the rest, be rank. <br /> <br />Bear me, rough breakers, swiftly on! <br />Yield, mist-wrapped mountains, passage through; <br />I fret, I fever, to be gone <br />To skies and waters blue: <br /> <br />Where, loosed from trammels, one may still <br />Complete the functions fettered here; <br />Heart unsuborned, unbiassed will, <br />And intellect sincere. <br /> <br />My senses with my spirit meet <br />To urge me from this northern soil, <br />Ere stealthy Winter's ambushed sleet <br />Swoop on autumnal spoil. <br /> <br />The sickle hath performed its work, <br />The storm-gusts sweep the aspens bare, <br />Careering clouds and shadows mirk <br />Cow the disheartened air. <br /> <br />No swallow circles round the roof, <br />No chirp redeems the dripping shed; <br />The very gables frown reproof- <br />Why not already fled? <br /> <br />I fly. Decked forms and landscape bare, <br />Enticements robbed of every spell, <br />Frivolities no longer fair, <br />Ye bubbles all, farewell!<br /><br />Alfred Austin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/free-133/
