On airy cliff side sits the falcon’s nest,

A perch of splendid vacant seaside view,

And in it does my youthful spirit rest,

Absorbing breath of air and sky of blue;

While body lives the life of down-below,

Performing every crucial mindless task,

Away the heart and erudite mind go

To gaze in lightness through the earthly mask;

On mountains and among thick shaded woods,

Beside the sea and next to lake’s pure shore,

Man casts away his heavy mortal hoods

And sees what is to come, what came before.

And buoyed up upon life’s fertile swell

He floats once more down to the level throngs,

But draws again when needful from the well,

The sweet natural embrace where he belongs.