Classic Poem

Out of the darks and deeps of space,
Where worlds in awful shadow swim,
I came to meet the ancient sun,
Obeying all my bond with him.

Wrapped in the glimmer of my scarf,
My wefts of silver brede and lace,
Woven of stars and winds, I pressed,
And felt his glory on my face.

When, lo, along my hurrying way
A shining fillet he had lost,
Or, sooth, another sphere, a star
That into being he had lost.

A ball of swirling fire, fierce waves
Of molten jewels leaping fast
And shattering crests of flame and jets
Of kindling spume, I saw and passed.

Æons of ages, and again
On my parabolas I swept
Where, lapped in opalescent films,
The fire-ball rolled and, dreaming, slept.

And yet new ages, and I saw
In green of vasty forest shade
That sphere enfolded, and in seas
Where nameless monsters plunged and played.

Once more from darks and deeps of space
To meet my mighty love I sprung:
Lo, the blue sky, the fleecy cloud;
Mooned with soft light the planet swung.

And there were temples on the heights,
And homes beneath the fruited trees,
And never had I seen before
Beings so beautiful as these.

They blushed, they smiled, they laughed, they loved; —
Fain would I pause before I pass.
What songs they sang! But then what tears
They wept! And there were graves, alas!

Born of that whorl of fire-mist, now
A little less than gods, they sought
In vain the secret of the stars,
The mystery of their own thought.

Away, away! Tremendous whiles
Shall lapse; but one day, seamed and charred,
I find this soft and gleaming world
A shrunken ball, a lifeless shard.

And when at last, perchance, I come,
The elemental force withdrawn,
Of light, of heat, of motion, life,
In that place Nothingness shall yawn.

Away! My master and my lord,
Still drawn by thy almighty will,
Though worlds be born in purple depths,
Though worlds shall fail, I seek thee still.

What shudder sways me? ah, what chill
Shakes all my splendor as I flee?
Can loss like that be ours? Oh, love,
Can that fate fall on such as we?