O Yearn I To Distance Me Away Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

O yearn I to distance me away
From the city:
And into the green open bosky land to roam and roam.
And therefore let me sing

Of the enchanted bough that bent itself
To reach to rabbits brawny that around it played;

Of the old oak that in the midst of night
Spoke and conversed with the nightingale
That on its high bough sate and sang and sang.

Of the yew tree that midst the silent walks
More silent made at night in cemeteries
From its lone place unearthed and with silent steps
Moved its trunk all-leg-like through the paths
That are the streets on which the graves do lie
While the pale moon like a search-light still
Threw its pale rays across the silent slabs.

Of the green hill that in the thick of night
With bosom black against the azure sky
Linear and ascending high
Was peopled with animals queer and strange
That in dark hours find their liberty.

Of goblins green that clambered through the vales
Of fauns that climb the citadel’s high walls;
Of satyrs colored that in some hidden vale
Dance on the mead as the Three Graces do
When dawn sheds its first rays on sleeping trees

Of nymphs that silent dance in hidden coves
Their foot-print tiny in the red sands sinking
While the great Ocean letting his waves in
Runs over the small foot-prints hiding them
From curious eyes and minds that morrow brings.
Whilst the great Ocean’s mighty waves resound
Echoing from arm to arm of bay with sounds rebound.
Of these, of these, and more I sing and let me sing.