I

Mine ears are filled with thy eternal voices.
O thou exulting Ocean! while mine eye
Opens upon thy blue immensity,
My o'ercharged bosom like thine own rejoices.
The sands spread out before me, the sun glows
Upon them from the azure, that o'erflows
With golden glory, such as fancy sees
Wandering through glades of the Hesperides.
The gulls, like scattered snow-flakes, speck the shore,
Circling or sailing on the heaving floor;
And they, sole visible things that live among
The sands and desolate rocks, the spirit give
Indwelling joy that doth itself prolong;
Sense of delight like them in wandering free;
The passion and the love for liberty.
I gazed, and while my inmost soul was stilled
By thy deep melodies, mysterious Sea!
While thy full choirs this human temple filled,
The spirit of my thought, absorbed by thee,
Forgot awhile its self-identity.

II

Methought I stood upon the Chian strand;
I looked around and saw blind H OMER , near,
Beside a rock in meditation stand.
I knew the godlike aspect of the Seer,
The prophet and great heir of life and time,
The form majestic and the brow sublime.
The waves broke at his feet, he heard them not;
The lyre was in his hand, its chords forgot
In the high mood of his entrancing thought.
The breezes sighed amid his hoary hair,
That floated o'er his neck and shoulders bare.
The inward cheerfulness, that emanates
From the great soul which its own light creates,
Shone o'er his countenance august, as sheds
The sun its rays o'er mountains' topmost heads.
His forehead bald rose like an altar-place
Lighted with fire from heaven; his reverent face
Turned toward the setting sun, whose lustrous flood
Fell, robe-like, round the Poet where he stood,
Typing the everlasting crown that Fame
Haloing should cast around his deathless name!

III

The quickening life that fills the infinite
Shone o'er his visage, filled with inward light;
On his lips moving inspiration dwelt,
As if the presence of the god he felt
Descending on him in his solitude.
In that grand aspect and abstracted mood
Was stamped the image of the immortal creature.
Even while I gazed, I felt how mighty Nature
Entered his soul, while prophet-like he stood
Amid her inspirations: from the sound
Of billows his verse drawn, and depth profound;
From the grey rocks his images of power;
From the staid movements of the solemn sky,
The strength, and motion, and sublimity
Embodied in his gods; from yonder sun,
The watching symbol of the Eternal One,
That shone upon him there in that still hour,
As if it lingered round the Man it blest, —
The calm and grandeur, majesty and rest!