Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (50)

    WHY from the dreamy meadows, More fair than any dream, Why will you seek the shadows Beyond the ocean stream？ Through straits of storm and peril¹, Through firths unsailed before, Why make you for the sterile², The dark Kimmerian shore？ There no bright streams are flowing, There day and night are one, No harvest time, no sowing, No sight of any sun； No sound of song or tabor, No dance shall greet you there； No noise of mortal labour, Breaks on the blind chill air. Are ours not happy places, Where Gods with mortals trod？ Saw not our sires the faces Of many a present God？