Explore "The Black Birds (Lyrics, Dramatic and Personal)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I. Once, only once, I saw it clear, -- / That Eden every human heart has dreamed / A hundred times, but always far away! / Ah, well do I remember how it seemed, / Through the still atmosphere / Of that enchanted day, / To lie wide open to my weary feet: / A little land of love and joy and rest, / With meadows of soft green, / Rosy with cyclamen, and sweet / With delicate breath of violets unseen, -- / And, tranquil 'mid the bloom / As if it waited for a coming guest, / A little house of peace and joy and love / Was nested like a snow-white dove
From the rough mountain where I stood, / Homesick for happiness, / Only a narrow valley and a darkling wood / To cross, and then the long distress / Of solitude would be forever past, -- / I should be home at last. / But not too soon! oh, let me linger here / And feed my eyes, hungry with sorrow, / On all this loveliness, so near, / And mine to-morrow!