Classic Poem

I.

What dim mysterious power holdst thou concealed
In thy most varying play of smiles and moods?
What soul dare tread thy marvellous solitudes
Of passionate woes by murmurous utterance-healed,
Nor cast his whole life's ordinance repealed
Before thee, that with hands of utmost power
Thou mayst regift the reborn soul with dower
Thy vagrant swift imaginations yield?
For life is at thy feet, and craves thy will,
O love, O lady, sovereign of all lands
Wherein wild pleasure from his horn doth spill
Sweet flowers, whose odors bind with golden bands;
For none may name thee, yet thou holdst men sure,
And leadst them with unconquerable lure.

II.

Past the pale vales with lowly blossoms set,
Where slender streams sing thinly-sounding songs,
We have gone to where the nightingale prolongs
Impassioned cadence, and all vain regret
And hollow-hearted fear, snared in the net
Of bliss, flutter and perish utterly,
To where love's ultimate strong ecstasy
New heart and soul in outworn life beget.
Yea, drowned beneath thy golden infinite sea,
Girt by thy multitude of warring waves,
Mixed in the flow of thy unceasing streams,
All souls who gain thine inmost sanctuary,
Dwell in thy measureless expanse of graves,
Live but as one of thy flame-clothed dreams.

III.

Black night and sea and the loud-sounding wind
And voices muttering things ill-understood;
O night gloom with thine utmost hardihood;
O sea mutter as one who deeply sinned;
O wind with hate inexorably twinned,
Thy storms tumultuous gather thou apace;
O voices cry aloud through boundless space
What has befallen; lo! spectres pale and thinned.
Is this the end? Here by the sullen shore
The dream has faded with the sinking sun.
Is the sweet singing past away and done?
Shall eyes and smiles play sun and moon no more?
The inarticulate vast roar replies,
And gradual clouds engulf the angry skies.