| CHANGED are the things I see To my window come back grown older, Ay, field and tree, they are changed to me, And still more changed the beholder. |
| Say is the light as warm, Is the day as bright as ever, Is it past the glimpse of perfect form, The flush of a full endeavour ? |
| So sank the sun, and with him My heart sank down with sorrow, But heaven grew bright as earth grew dim, And the sun came shining thorough. |
| Still 'tis the same, the same As when first the sight was given, Still a crescent of silver flame Hung in the height of heaven. |
| Changed are the things I see From life's low window corner, And many a truth is changed to me, And still more changed the learner. |
| But oh, God's heavens ye shine, Ye shine and do not alter; Turn more that way then, eye of mine, Foot less in the footpath alter. |
| Bonskeid, December 28th, 1889. |
| This is a post Darwinian and Romantic poem: where Robert Barbour is aware of change in general and the view from any Bonskeid window is changing through the year. He keeps the belief, however, that beyond all this and unseen is a heavenly realm of stability according to his rather displaced if retained evangelical faith. |
Adrian Worsfold