University of Virginia Library

ST. JOHN AT PATMOS

14
What be his dreams in Patmos?

What be his dreams in Patmos? O'er the seas
Looks he toward Athens, where the very fall
Of Grecian sunlight is Platonical?
Or, peradventure, towards the Cyclades,
The Delian earth-star, ray'd with laurel-trees—
From ribbon'd baskets where Demeter threw
Flowers the colour of the country blue
Oat-garlanded in Paros—or where bees
Humming o'er Amalthæa, who fed Zeus
With goatmilk, goldenly the forest starr'd—
Where Dionysus, driven o'er the brine,
Triumphant as his prow went Naxosward,
Ivied the mast, and cream'd the crimson wine,
Crimson, or yellow-colour'd Grecian juice.

15
IN GALILEE

Not fancies of the soft Ionian clime,
Nor thoughts on Plato's page, that greener grow
Than do the plane-trees by the pleasant flow
Of the Ilissus in the summer time,
Came to the Galilean with sweet chime.
Blanch'd in the blaze of Syrian summers, lo!
He gazes on Gennesareth, aglow
Within its golden mountain cup sublime.
The sunset comes. Behind the Roman tower
The dark boat's circled topsails shift and swell,
Quench'd is the flickering furnace of the dust,
The mountains branded as with red gold rust,
The tunic'd boatmen dip their nets an hour
And the sun goeth down on Jezreel.

16
GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST

But ere heaven's cressets burn along its plain,
The Master comes. And as a man, all night
Lull'd in a room full fronting ocean's might,
First waking sees a whiteness on his pane,
A little dawning whiteness, then again
A little line insufferably bright
Edging the ripples, orbing on outright
Until the glory he may scarce sustain;
And as a mighty city far-descried,
Although the same from each ascension high
Looks strangely different to the merchantmen
Who wend their way thereto by hill or glen—
So by St. John's deep meditation eyed
That Nature grew to God's own majesty.