If ever I seek to find my own reflection in a verse, then the first four lines of this beautiful poem are most likely where I’ll have to face it. I just hope if the first few lines are true, the last two of the same stanza would prove true too and the song that I’m trying to sing would be borne on the wings of wind and spread far and wide.
~*~
BEHOLD her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain, 5
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.
No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands 10
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas 15
Among the farthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago: 20
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?
Whate’er the theme, the Maiden sang 25
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o’er the sickle bending;—
I listen’d, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill, 30
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.
How far can a person go to fulfill the dreams of someone else?
Find out in the pages of Dream’s Sake, a general fiction novel by Jyoti Arora.
For more information and free preview of first chapter click on the picture or visit:www,jyotiarora.com
Dream’s Sake
A Novel by Jyoti Arora
