 | The Poetical Works of John Payne |  |
172
BURIED CITIES.
IF one should wander, in a boat of dreams,Upon the charmèd ocean of the Past,
Peering, with paddling hands and eyes down-cast,
Into the amethystine deeps, meseems
He should see many wonders, by the beams
Of backward memory; the phantoms vast
And awful of the cities of the past
Uplooming through the deeps with sudden gleams
Of glancing towers and jewel-wroughten spires;
And therein too there should be visible,
Methinks, about the streets strange flitting fires,
Wearing his hopes' soul-semblance; and the spell
Should be sung round with silver sound of lyres
And the sad song of some far golden bell.
| The Poetical Works of John Payne | |