The Street & Used to Live in.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 12, 1 September 1900, Page 931

The Street & Used to Live in.

Dead leaves in Vallambrosa Lie yellow on the ground, And many an airy castle is In Vallambrosa found. Dead hands have built the castles, Dead hands the pictures drawn Like dews that tremble on the ground And vanish with the dawn. And now — they're lost among 1 the leaves On Vallambrosa's lawn. In bygone days, when baby hair Was thick around my head, I built a Castle Beautiful — (It's peopled with the dead ; Dead eyes look down from pictures That hang upon the wall) And fairies came, and pixies, too, And dwarfs and giants tall. And now — they 're mists, where things are not, In Vallambrosa's hall.

I think a fairy princess came And fairy dances led ; And champions fought, and horses charged, And wicked ogres bled ; And fairy ships went floating by On rippling seas of gold, Well, things were rather better then Than now I'm wise and old, And, if I could, I'd live there still And fairy courts would hold. I'd sail in fairy ships that had A Vanderdecken crow, And search where rainbow gold was hid Below the waters blue, Where crystal waters spread above The coral forest deeps, And good Hai'oun, in misty lands, His misty kingdom keeps, Where young .Romance its riot holds, When prosy Wisdom sloops. 0. OrROWDEN.