Amid the falling dew

While the heavens glow with the last steps of day

Far through the distant depths, you pursue

Your solitary way.

Vainly the gator's eye

Might mark your flight to do you wrong

As darkly seen against the rosy sky

Your figure floats along.

You seek the flashy brink

Of weedy lakes, or margins of the riverside

Or where the rocking waves rise and sing

On the chaffed ocean, wide.

There is a Power whose care

Guides your long journey down the coast—

The barren desert air—

Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day your wings fan

At that great height in the cold, thin atmosphere,

Yet unwearied to the welcome land,

Though the dark night is near.

Soon that work will end;

Soon you will find a summer home, and rest

And scream among your winged kin; reeds will bend

Soon, over your sheltered nest.

You are gone, the abyss of heaven

Has swallowed your form; yet, in my heart

Deeply sinks the lesson you have given

And will not depart.

He who without care for borders

Crosses the sky in certain flight,

In the long way that I must tread alone,

Will lead my steps to right.