Earth’s Shadow.
What spirit darkens the bloom of day ?1
The clovered meadow no sweetness yields ;2
A silence rests on the waveless fields ;3
The world is haggard and gaunt and gray.4
The clouds drift wearily over the sky ;5
The grain is yellow, the hills are bare ;6
A heaviness broods in the quiet air ;7
The streamlet sobs as it passes by.8
But yesterday morn the flowers were sweet,9
The day was bright and the world was young ;10
And in the even the throstle sung,11
And his song was glad and the hours were
fleet.12
But a misty darkness glimmers athwart13
The fields to-day, and the hours are long ;14
And I hear a dirge in the throstle’s song ;15
For the gloom is the shadow of thee, my heart.16