The Poetry Corner

Exmoor Verses I. Vashti's Song

By Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

Over the rim of the Moor, And under the starry sky, Two men came to my door And rested them thereby. Beneath the bough and the star, In a whispering foreign tongue, They talked of a land afar And the merry days so young! Beneath the dawn and the bough I heard them arise and go: And my heart it is aching now For the more it will never know. Why did they two depart Before I could understand? Where lies that land, O my heart? --O my heart, where lies that land?