O, I went down to Merlin's Isle, <br />And when that I had found it, <br />I kneeled me down a little while <br />And praised the peace that bound it. <br />There were no seas around it, <br />But the full tide of turf in flood <br />To the rim of the berried hawthorn wood, <br />And a dew-pond where the dear stars stood <br />Too deep for me to sound it. <br /> <br />O, I went down to Merlin's Isle <br />And there I soon did learn-a, <br />The winds they did implore me, <br />How sweet two beech-brown eyes may smile <br />Among the maiden fern-a. <br />My poor heart took a turn-a. <br />In a warm wind the whitebeam foam <br />Ran quick along the silvering loam, <br />And I was young and far from home, <br />As you may well discern-a <br /> <br />O, I went home from Merlin's Isle, <br />My dear was there before me. <br />In the moonshine by the shepherd's stile <br />A kind of grief came o'er me. <br />The winds they did implore me, <br />'And come,' they said, but I said 'Nay, <br />For the honey star hath closed the day, <br />And love that borrowed my soul away, <br />Sweet love shall now restore me.'<br /><br />Marjorie Lowry Christie Pickthall<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/merlin-s-isle/
