Oh, golden day,
Come into me
And my soul ray
With sunlit glee!
Let me be merely
A window‑pane
You pass through, clearly
A warmed no‑pain.
I faint and shiver
Hearing life come.
O passing river,
Where is my home?
O happy hours
That the fields wear,
Fresh summer showers!
O my despair!
O glad horizons!
O happy hills!
What pain imprisons
My struggling wills?
What is between
Myself and me?
What should have been
Lest this should be?
My life no more
Ever to be
Than a lone shore
Struck by the sea!
What fate, what power
Of dark despair
Makes each fair hour
Taste as not fair?
Oh, for some rest!
Give me a home,
A hope, a nest
Not to stray from!
Somewhere in life
Sure there must be
Something not strife
Waiting for me.
Lead me to it,
O happy day!
Make my heart fit
Thy going away!
Wake me the hopes
At least, though false,
My spirit gropes
Round prison‑walls.
Low voice of streams,
Sweet summer's wife -
Why made I dreams
My only life?