TO RETIREMENT

At last, O thou serene retreat
    From all my wanderings! Thou balm desired
So long, that bringst me healing sweet
    From wounds naught else can heal! Inspired
    Seclusion, gracious welcome for the tired!

At last, thou little thatch of straw
    Beneath whose eaves no lurking Care hath stayed,
Where none within a comrade's glances saw
    The gleam of Envy e'er displayed—
    Nor voice was perjured, not a plot betrayed!

Fair upland, sloping to the skies
    With peace beyond the thought of earth endowed—
Beyond where in death's grapple vies
    The creature of the fevered crowd
    With thirst of dissolution and the shroud!—

Receive me, mountain, oh receive
    Within thy fastness! For I come pursued
By slander!—yea, unfinished leave
    The tasks that bring ingratitude,
    The peace that mocks, and earth's unhappy brood!—

Where one, who late at haven-bar
    Hath lain to anchor calm, is now the prey
Of winds that buffet him afar
    And waves that gulf him in their spray
    And rack his hapless timbers with dismay!

Another meets the lurking rock
    And instant down the yawning waters goes
Calamitous unto the shock!
    For one, becalmed, no life-breath blows;
    On Syrtean shoals the squall another throws;

Whilst others are despairing prey
    To sudden midnight and the dread typhoon,
And to the hungry Neptune pay
    Their lives in tribute mid the swoon
    Some, bold to swim, are down the ocean strewn!

Strive or surrender to the flood,
    What end must ultimate be his, who rides,
Death-gripping through the foaming scud,
    Some broken spar his wreck provides
    Adown such vast abysm of roaring tides?

Alas!—how often and how often thou,
    Unfailing haven, last been my desire!
Then of thy refuge fail not now—
    Fail not when I would so require
    Mid such a sea of troubles blind and dire!