 | Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) |  |
XV.—Meteors.
How strangely through the immense unclouded gleam
Of shadowy skies, to solemn calmness given,
Flash out these hurrying golden lights that seem
The wild aerial accidents of heaven!
Of shadowy skies, to solemn calmness given,
Flash out these hurrying golden lights that seem
The wild aerial accidents of heaven!
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Silent as blossoms that in odorous Mays
Fall at the tremulous breeze's mild caress,
Down dim serenities of night's awful ways
They float mysteriously to nothingness.
Fall at the tremulous breeze's mild caress,
Down dim serenities of night's awful ways
They float mysteriously to nothingness.
But while in volatile beauty speeding so,
They touch the infinite with scarce deeper trace
Than if some languorous hand should vaguely throw
A glimmering lily through the dusk of space.
They touch the infinite with scarce deeper trace
Than if some languorous hand should vaguely throw
A glimmering lily through the dusk of space.
Along its measureless purple, densely-starred,
No answering tremor wakes, or faintest noise;
Eternally by these mishaps unmarred,
Reigns the cold radiance of its equipoise.
No answering tremor wakes, or faintest noise;
Eternally by these mishaps unmarred,
Reigns the cold radiance of its equipoise.
Even thus, one after one, the friends we prize
Drop from life's maze when the ordained hour shall doom,
Closing at last their dulled indifferent eyes
And journeying forth amid unfathomed gloom.
Drop from life's maze when the ordained hour shall doom,
Closing at last their dulled indifferent eyes
And journeying forth amid unfathomed gloom.
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Yet when they are passed, at fate's commandment signs,
Too often, against the darkness death shall weave,
Their memory's brightness perishably shines,
Like those pale furrows that the meteors leave!
Too often, against the darkness death shall weave,
Their memory's brightness perishably shines,
Like those pale furrows that the meteors leave!
| Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) | |