 | Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne |  |
XXXIV.
THE PHANTOM—SONG.
In museful hours, when thoughts of grace divineRoll wave-like up the stormless strand of dreams;—
When that which is grows vague as that which seems,—
I mark, far-off, a radiant shade incline
From heaven to earth,—whose face of marvelous shine,
(Half veiled in mystic beauty), softly beams
With delicate lustres, and elusive gleams,
Caught from some viewless Eden—hyaline:—
Ethereal, as the wavering hues that start
From chorded rainbows;—lingering scarce so long
As the last sun-ray flashed in twilight's eye,
I hail this phantom of a perfect song;—
And I, some day, shall pass the phantom by,—
To feel the embodied music next my heart!
| Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne | |