Drige - Hyperomm

Knows he who tills this lonely field

To reap its scanty corn

What mystic fruit his acres yield

At midnight and at morn?

In the long sunny afternoon

The plain was full of ghosts

I wandered up, I wandered down

Beset by pensive hosts

The winding Concord gleamed below

Pouring as wide a flood

As when my brothers long ago

Came with me to the wood

But they are gone, — the holy ones

Who trod with me this lonely vale

The strong, star-bright companions

Are silent, low, and pale

My good, my noble, in their prime

Who made this world the feast it was

Who learned with me the lore of time

Who loved this dwelling-place

They took this valley for their toy

They played with it in every mood

A cell for prayer, a hall for joy

They treated nature as they would

They colored the horizon round

Stars flamed and faded as they bade

All echoes hearkened for their sound

They made the woodlands glad or mad

I touch this flower of silken leaf

Which once our childhood knew

Its soft leaves wound me with a grief

Whose balsam never grew

Hearken to yon pine warbler

Singing aloft in the tree

Hearest thou, O traveller

What he singeth to me?

Not unless God made sharp thine ear

With sorrow such as mine

Out of that delicate lay couldst thou

The heavy dirge divine

Go, lonely man, it saith

They loved thee from their birth

Their hands were pure, and pure their faith

There are no such hearts on earth

Ye drew one mother’s milk

One chamber held ye all

A very tender history

Did in your childhood fall

Ye cannot unlock your heart

The key is gone with them

The silent organ loudest chants

The master’s requiem

Poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson