 | Golden Histories, etc |  |
So ever rising with the rising air,
Among the constellations Bacchus soar'd,
More beautiful than they. The ascending God
Beyond our sun, beyond our planets soar'd,
To where strange moons enormous shadows cast,
Conelike, and darkening down the stellar waste,
Soared past wild comets that with trailing fire,
Swept through the rayless gloom, and as he soared
Beheld with that great glory of the eyes
Which Gods can use at will, above, below,
Around, even to the starless shores of space,
Or planets robed in veils of rainbow air—
Or stars with shadowing rings of silver fire—
Or stars that, each round each, smooth-circling glide—
Or doubly-twined their glittering mazes weave
Round fair concentric suns; or, lovelier yet,
Saw emerald worlds soften the ruby glow
Of dazzling sister-stars: saw azure orbs
Now basking in a golden noon, now clothed
With a blue morning kindling all the skies,
Or saw a white a crimson day succeed.
With white by crimson followed evermore.
Among the constellations Bacchus soar'd,
More beautiful than they. The ascending God
Beyond our sun, beyond our planets soar'd,
To where strange moons enormous shadows cast,
Conelike, and darkening down the stellar waste,
Soared past wild comets that with trailing fire,
Swept through the rayless gloom, and as he soared
Beheld with that great glory of the eyes
Which Gods can use at will, above, below,
Around, even to the starless shores of space,
Or planets robed in veils of rainbow air—
Or stars with shadowing rings of silver fire—
Or stars that, each round each, smooth-circling glide—
Or doubly-twined their glittering mazes weave
Round fair concentric suns; or, lovelier yet,
Saw emerald worlds soften the ruby glow
Of dazzling sister-stars: saw azure orbs
Now basking in a golden noon, now clothed
With a blue morning kindling all the skies,
Or saw a white a crimson day succeed.
With white by crimson followed evermore.
But soon serener heights received the god,
Now floating in a finer element,
With face set towards Hesperia, that fair star
Whose image in our lowlier world we see,
Still mimicking the motions of the moon
Ere the sun rise or when the sun is down.
There too, as here, still Evening hung her moon,
Yet silver-pale, and clothed in gorgeous clouds,
The sun, full-orbed, sat opposite the moon.
Two winged youths, the genii of the star,
Wandered beside the sea on yellow sands,
With faces planet-shaped, and heads that bore
Bright cressets, silvering all the region round.
With folded wings the taller genius stood,
Bearing aloft a rosy-wrinkled shell,
Filled with ethereal sunlight at the dawn,
But now half empty of its golden flame.
The rival Light spread out his shadowy vans,
Poising a conch that, brimmed with paler fire,
Smoothed all the air with warm luxurious light—
Phosphor and Hesperus, so call their names,
Were planetary princes. Phosphor sway'd
The morning's red dominions: Hesper ruled
Eve's purple-fading realms. The lordlier Shape
Now waned, and still the more he waned his mate
To riper glory rose, as, when at night
Over the hills of Crete the summer moon
With glad full presence shines on busy hands
And shifting feet of reapers in the corn.
47
With face set towards Hesperia, that fair star
Whose image in our lowlier world we see,
Still mimicking the motions of the moon
Ere the sun rise or when the sun is down.
There too, as here, still Evening hung her moon,
Yet silver-pale, and clothed in gorgeous clouds,
The sun, full-orbed, sat opposite the moon.
Two winged youths, the genii of the star,
Wandered beside the sea on yellow sands,
With faces planet-shaped, and heads that bore
Bright cressets, silvering all the region round.
With folded wings the taller genius stood,
Bearing aloft a rosy-wrinkled shell,
Filled with ethereal sunlight at the dawn,
But now half empty of its golden flame.
The rival Light spread out his shadowy vans,
Poising a conch that, brimmed with paler fire,
Smoothed all the air with warm luxurious light—
Phosphor and Hesperus, so call their names,
Were planetary princes. Phosphor sway'd
The morning's red dominions: Hesper ruled
Eve's purple-fading realms. The lordlier Shape
Now waned, and still the more he waned his mate
To riper glory rose, as, when at night
Over the hills of Crete the summer moon
With glad full presence shines on busy hands
And shifting feet of reapers in the corn.
| Golden Histories, etc | |