Six Sets of Five Songs Each for Voice and Pianoforte, Set VI , opus 77

I hear the sea-song of the blood in my heart,
I hear the sea-song of the blood in my ears:
And I am far apart,
And lost in the years.

But when I lie and dream of that which was
Before the first man's shadow flitted on the grass,
I am stricken dumb
With sense of that to come.

Is then this wildering sea-song but a part
Of the old song of the mystery of the years -- 
Or only the echo of the tired heart
And of tears?

A star was loosed from heaven;
All saw it fall, in wonder,
Where universe clashed universe
With solar thunder.
The angels praised God's glory,
To send this beacon-flare
To show the terror of darkness
Beneath the Golden Stair.
But God was brooding only
Upon new births of light;
The star was a drop of water
On the lips of Eternal Light.

Wave, wave, green branches, wave me far away
To where the forest deepens and the hillwinds, sleeping, stay:
Where Peace doth fold her twilight wings, and through the heart of day
There goes the rumour of passing hours grown faint and grey.
Wave, wave, green branches, my heart like a bird doth hover
Above the nesting-place your green-gloom shadows cover:
O come to my nesting heart, come close, come close, bend over,
Joy of my heart, my life, my prince, my lover!

Thy dark eyes to mine, Eilidh,
Lamps of desire!
O how my soul leaps
Leaps to their fire!

Sure, now, if I in heaven,
Dreaming in bliss,
Heard but [a]1 whisper,
But the lost echo even
Of [one such]2 kiss -- 

All of the Soul of me
Would leap afar -- 
If that called me to thee
Aye, I would leap afar
A falling star!

Poor little songs, children of sorrow, go.
A wind may take you up, and blow you far.
My heart will go with you, too, wherever you go.

As the little leaves in the wood they pass:
The wind has lifted them, and the wind is gone.
Have I too not heard the wind come, and pass?

The secret dews fall under the Evening-Star,
And there is peace I know in the west: yet, if there be no dawn,
The secret dews fall under the Evening-Star.