Rebel Verses

<h2><SPAN name="Timberland_Bells" id="Timberland_Bells"></SPAN>Timberland Bells</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I used to hear them faintly<br/></span> <span class="i0">Those evening bells for prayer,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Across the fields of Tilney,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Beyond the sunset's glare.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I heard them in my childhood,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Those bells of Timberland,<br/></span> <span class="i0">When I was always happy,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Holding my father's hand.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Enchanted in the distance,<br/></span> <span class="i0">They rode upon the air,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Seeming to float from Heaven;<br/></span> <span class="i0">I knew not how nor where.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">All through life's dusty pathway,<br/></span> <span class="i0">I heard those bells ring out,<br/></span> <span class="i0">A chiming in the distance,<br/></span> <span class="i0">That sung, my path about.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">My father&mdash;how I miss him&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Lies in the churchyard there,<br/></span> <span class="i0">He takes my hand no longer<br/></span> <span class="i0">He knows not how I fare.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">But I would give up everything<br/></span> <span class="i0">To hold again his hand,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And hear across the meadows<br/></span> <span class="i0">The bells of Timberland.<br/></span> <span class="pagenum">[39]</span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />