WHEN high above the busy street
Some hidden voice poured Mary’s song,
Oh, then my soul forgot the beat
And tumult of the city’s throng,
And bells and voices murmured low,
Blent to a dreamy monotone
That chimed and changed in mystic flow,
And wove a spell for me alone.
The towering blocks no more were there,
No longer pressed the crowd around,
All freely roamed a magic air
Within a vast horizon’s bound;
Beneath a sky of lucent gray
Far stretched the circled northern plain,
Wild sunflowers decked a prairie gay,
And one dear autumn came again.
Before me went a winsome maid,
And oh the mien with which she stept
Her long brown hair without a braid
Concealed the shoulders that it swept;
And, glancing backward, me she gave
The smile so angel kind, so wise—
That look of love, those eyes so grave,
Once made my earthly Paradise.
Divinely on my darling went,
The wild flowers leaning from her tread,
Enrapt I followed on intent,
Till, ah, the gracious vision fled;
The plain gave place to blocks of gray,
The sunlit Heaven to murky cloud,
Staring I stood in common day,
And never knew the street so loud.
