 | Blackberries |  |
A Dream.
I saw, in dream, an aged reverend Man,
Sitting upon a heap of shards and cinders;
Whom when I greeted passing, “Stop!” said he,
“Thou must not that way go!”—“And wherefore not?”
“Because I disallow it. Stay, my son;
O hear me, gentle son! Close, close thine eyes,
That I may teach thy pathway. No? Then burn
For ever, caitiff! who rejectest me
Sitting in place of GOD!”
Sitting upon a heap of shards and cinders;
Whom when I greeted passing, “Stop!” said he,
“Thou must not that way go!”—“And wherefore not?”
“Because I disallow it. Stay, my son;
O hear me, gentle son! Close, close thine eyes,
That I may teach thy pathway. No? Then burn
For ever, caitiff! who rejectest me
Sitting in place of GOD!”
Whereon I smiled
And pass'd. He, frowning, raised his arms aloft
As though to curse, but in that effort split
And fell to pieces, like a lump of sand
Upon the seashore in a rising tide.
And pass'd. He, frowning, raised his arms aloft
As though to curse, but in that effort split
And fell to pieces, like a lump of sand
Upon the seashore in a rising tide.
41
Then all the sea-fowl rose and scream'd, and all
The fishes leap'd and gamboll'd in the surf,
A shrill harsh cry, a fluttering turbulence,
Subsiding instantly; and lo, I paced
The broad smooth sand familiar, and the sea
Roll'd calmly shoreward, murmuring round my steps
With music, underneath a sky of light
Purer than azure wild-flow'rs; music finer,
Tenderer than song of birds or children's voices
Floating in hymns of joy on morning breezes.
The fishes leap'd and gamboll'd in the surf,
A shrill harsh cry, a fluttering turbulence,
Subsiding instantly; and lo, I paced
The broad smooth sand familiar, and the sea
Roll'd calmly shoreward, murmuring round my steps
With music, underneath a sky of light
Purer than azure wild-flow'rs; music finer,
Tenderer than song of birds or children's voices
Floating in hymns of joy on morning breezes.
| Blackberries | |