Carol, every violet
Heaven for a looking-glass!
Every little valley
Under many-clouded skies;
Every little cottage
Girt about with boundless lands.
Every little glimmering
Claims the mighty shores beyond—Shores no seamen ever hailed,
Seas no ship has ever sailed.
All the shores when day is
Fade into the setting sun,
So the story tries to
More than can be told in speech.
Beauty is a fading flower,
Truth is but a wizard's tower,
Where a solemn death-bell tolls,
And a forest round it rolls.
We have come by curious
To the light that holds the days;
We have sought in haunts of
For that all-enfolding sphere:
And lo! it was not far, but near.
We have found,
O foolish-fond,
The shore that has no shore beyond.
Deep in every heart it
With its untranscended skies;
For what heaven should bend
Hearts that own the heaven of love?
Carol,
Carol, we have
Back to heaven, back to home.(From "The Flower of Old Japan")
