 | The house of the titans and other poems |  |
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THE RIVER
There below me on the hillside where the glaring lantern burnedO what gay good-nights were shouted as the children homeward turned,
Running on the mountain ridges where the dizzy lantern made
Monstrous moths upon the midnight, flaring wings of light and shade.
Soon the merry voices faintly died upon the distant ridge,
And the giant moth had dwindled to the flicker of a midge,
And its light was lost amid the village lights of earth and sky.
Then a vast and silent river seemed to roll and pass me by.
On its tide the gay fleet-footed boys and girls were borne afar
To the port where sweep the golden galleons of sun and star,
With their merchandise of monarchs, glittering legions, tumult, flame,
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In the anchorage of silence drop and vanish. As I lay
All but the desireless spirit seemed to roll and pass away.
And that spirit whispered to me: Time is but desire: its waves
Hurry onward on their flowing only those who are its slaves.
As I lay upon the hillside, I, whom love had lost and fled,
Knew I could be lost for ever and was strangely comforted.
Then that high desireless spirit in the stillness came more nigh,
Breathed within me for an instant, for an instant it was I.
For an instant I was nameless and unto myself unknown,
Nor knew I what looked on creation from that mountain seat alone.
| The house of the titans and other poems | |