 | Last poems including Afterglow and Beyond the sunset |  |
116
PRELUDE
When you can tell how the young grasses run
With swift glad feet across the meadows dun;
Or how the spring-time verdure softly creeps,
A dream of silence, up the mountain steeps;
With swift glad feet across the meadows dun;
Or how the spring-time verdure softly creeps,
A dream of silence, up the mountain steeps;
When you can tell whence cometh form or hue,
Or why the rose is red, the violet blue;
Or how the lily from its murky bed
White and unsullied lifts its queenly head;
Or why the rose is red, the violet blue;
Or how the lily from its murky bed
White and unsullied lifts its queenly head;
When you can name the serried ranks of stars
That blaze beyond the midnight's ebon bars;
Or count the waves that beat upon the shore
Of isles where Ocean thunders evermore;
That blaze beyond the midnight's ebon bars;
Or count the waves that beat upon the shore
Of isles where Ocean thunders evermore;
117
When you can tell what life is, and declare,
Beyond a peradventure, whence the rare
Essence of Being comes, or where it goes
When the breath falters and the eyelids close;
Beyond a peradventure, whence the rare
Essence of Being comes, or where it goes
When the breath falters and the eyelids close;
Then you can analyze the poet's dream,
Its wild sweet rapture, its elusive gleam—
And tell us why the song he sings to-day
Is not the same that he sang yesterday!
Its wild sweet rapture, its elusive gleam—
And tell us why the song he sings to-day
Is not the same that he sang yesterday!
| Last poems including Afterglow and Beyond the sunset | |