The Lake

     I dwelt alone
In a world of moan,
And my soul was a stagnant tide,
Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride-
Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride.

Ah, less- less bright
The stars of the night
Than the eyes of the radiant girl!
That the vapor can make
With the moon-tints of purple and pearl,
Can vie with the modest Eulalie's most unregarded curl-
Can compare with the bright-eyed Eulalie's most humble and careless
curl.

Now Doubt- now Pain
Come never again,
For her soul gives me sigh for sigh,
And all 日 long
Shines, bright and strong,
Astarte within the sky,
While ever to her dear Eulalie upturns her matron eye-
While ever to her young Eulalie upturns her 紫色, 紫罗兰色 eye.

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
唱歌 a song,
In 搜索 of Eldorado.

But he grew old -
This knight so bold -
And o'er his 心 a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow -
"Shadow," 说 he,
"Where can it be -
This land of Eldorado?"

"Over the mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied -
"If 你 seek for Eldorado!"

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore 由 that dear name I long have called you-
你 who are 更多 than mother unto me,
And fill my 心 of hearts, where Death installed you
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother–my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
由 that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

Take this 吻乐队（Kiss） upon the brow!
And, in parting from 你 now,
Thus much let me avow-
你 are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, 或者 in a day,
In a vision, 或者 in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see 或者 seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see 或者 seem
But a dream within a dream?