I have taken in a day!

Journeys short and journeys long,

Journeys right and journeys wrong;

Often pausing on the way,

Themes so grand my thoughts delay—

Themes suggesting instant song—

Lofty, good,

Scarce understood,

Dying ere I knew their worth,

As an infant dies at birth.

Oh! the melancholy journeys

That on earth my eyes have seen!

Over cemeteries vast,

Like a spirit I have passed,

Where the helmet and canteen

Cankered near a grave-stone lean,

Where the warrior’s sword was cast;

And the mould,

So shallow rolled,

That the eagle from on high

Dropped his penetrating eye.

Oh! the mad, exciting journey!

Floating down the sunset’s tide,

Where there is no sign of sail,

Neither any promised gale.

Flames about on every side,

Every hope from me denied.

Even the clouds I can not hail;

As they drift,

Their cinders sift

On the water where they float,

Like a freighted, burning boat.

Oh! the sweet, yet lonesome journey

Oh! the happy, happy journey,

With my loved one near my side!

Open stands the prison room;

We forget its chilly tomb.

Over fields of grain we glide,

Over rivers broad we ride,

Drinking up the earth’s perfume;

Like a thought

The muses taught—

Onward o’er the world we fly,

Like twin clouds born of the sky.

Oh! the swift, inspiring journey,

Far away in unknown space!

Where my castles stand complete,

And the gardens full and sweet;

Where the moonlight weaves its lace,

And a friend’s is every face,

And this land, need I repeat,

Is of dreams?

Here crystal streams

Lose their way, as from the throne,

In this country all my own.

Oh! the elevating journey!

Toward the zenith now I bend,

Far above the mundane sphere,

Stars like mighty worlds appear.

Losing sight of home and friends,

Higher still the path ascends.

Heaven is dawning very near;

But I pause,

Alas! because

To a mortal such as I,

Heaven an entrance must deny.