Tremendous Poet, born of earth and heaven, taking
From both dominion, power and beauty: shaking
Glittering berries from night's skyey jungles: raking
Gold-nuggets from the streams of dawn and sunset: tearing
Jewels that sing and sparkle from far mountains: shearing
Fleeces of silver from the flocks of heaven, and combing
The green-haired forests for their diverse hoard
Of leafy splendour, roving beast and bird—
From lion's tawny mane and topaz eyes,
And leopard's freckled flanks and emerald fires,
And python's coils and adder's jaundiced bars,
To shy king-fisher's sapphire shooting-stars.
These shapes that spring, these colours spun
From dust and water, wind and sun,
Mirrored in your magic mind,
As shapes of dream live in sleep's stream,
Dissolve with inspiration's cataclysmic stress
And leave no trace behind:
But born again they rise
In poems of prismatic dress,
Spheres of perfect loveliness,
Spirit-trees of radiant bloom
Springing from earth's troubled gloom
And branching to the skies.