All along the valley, stream that flashest white, Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night, All along the valley, where thy waters flow, I walked with one I loved two and thirty years ago. All along the valley while I walked to-day, 5 The two and thirty years were a mist that rolls away; For all along the valley, down thy rocky bed, Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead, And all along the valley, by rock and cave and tree, The voice of the dead was a living voice to me. 10
Quick, painter, quick, the moment seize Amid the snowy Pyrenees; More evanescent than the snow, The pictures come, are seen, and go: Quick, quick, _currente calamo_. 5 I do not ask the tints that fill The gate of day 'twixt hill and hill; I ask not for the hues that fleet Above the distant peaks; my feet Are on a poplar-bordered road, 10 Where with a saddle and a load A donkey, old and ashen-grey, Reluctant works his dusty way. Before him, still with might and main Pulling his rope, the rustic rein, 15 A girl: before both him and me, Frequent she turns and lets me see, Unconscious, lets me scan and trace The sunny darkness of her face And outlines full of southern grace. 20 Following I notice, yet and yet, Her olive skin, dark eyes deep set, And black, and blacker e'en than jet, The escaping hair that scantly showed, Since o'er it in the country mode, 25 For winter warmth and summer shade, The lap of scarlet cloth is laid. And then, back-falling from the head, A crimson kerchief overspread Her jacket blue; thence passing down, 30 A skirt of darkest yellow-brown, Coarse stuff, allowing to the view The smooth limb to the woollen shoe. But who--here's some one following too,-- A priest, and reading at his book! 35 Read on, O priest, and do not look; Consider,--she is but a child,-- Yet might your fancy be beguiled. Read on, O priest, and pass and go! But see, succeeding in a row, 40 Two, three, and four, a motley train, Musicians wandering back to Spain; With fiddle and with tambourine, A man with women following seen. What dresses, ribbon ends, and flowers! 45 And,--sight to wonder at for hours,-- The man,--to Phillip has he sat?-- With butterfly-like velvet hat; One dame his big bassoon conveys, On one his gentle arm he lays; 50 They stop, and look, and something say, And to 'España' ask the way. But while I speak, and point them on; Alas, my dearer friends are gone, The dark-eyed maiden and the ass 55 Have had the time the bridge to pass. Vainly, beyond it far descried, Adieu, and peace with you abide, Grey donkey, and your beauteous guide. The pictures come, the pictures go, 60 Quick, quick, _currente calamo_.