Classic Poem

The twilight fell; a glimmering chain of lamps
Defined the crescent beach; with sullen moan,
Before the cliff's unvanquished citadel,
Retired the sea; the fisher's lantern gleamed
On the moist shore, and from his stranded boat
Trailed the rent net, entangled with the weed.

Opened behind an ancient, low-roofed street
With laboured windings. Tapers in small panes
Doled parsimonious light on scanty wares —
On toys that wore their cobwebs moodily
Like mourners at a birthday's funeral,
On fruits that warned the taste they once enticed,
And faded ribbons — silent homilies
On maiden pride. A straggling group whose speech
Fell brief and dull, whose unexpectant steps
Loitered abroad to shun unsocial homes,
Divided as I passed. There came no sound
To break the torpor till, with pant and scream,
Clanged the steam monster on its iron road,
Angering the hazy distance from its sleep.
Oh, harsh Reality, Life's fair Ideal
Fled from thy frown! Stretched on the sombre coast,
A log my pillow, listlessly I shook
The sand to sand and cried — " Tis fit these grains
Within a glass should measure vanity. "

Here, as I lay and caught the fretting wash
Of the tired ebb, a flickering watery beam —
As if a wandering finger of veiled light
Felt for its way — played tremulous on the sand,
And made me ware of Moon-rise. Like the Angel
That overcame the Dragon, coil by coil
Did she unwind of vast and tortuous cloud,
Then free emerged and stainless, filling space
With the mild awe that breathes from loveliness.
Higher she rose. Gaunt peaks, from depths of gloom,
Smit by her smile, smiled back. Beneath her spread
The palpitating waves — a shining track,
Leading to lands as lovely as her light,
Across a night of sea. Bright rose the masts
Of stranded boats as they were moored beside
The happy Avalon. Roof, lattice, wall
Caught the soft glory, save where shadows fell
Deep as remembered love and still as peace.

So, by one heavenly influence, common forms
Put on ethereal semblance; and methought —
" Thus our familiar life the radiant Soul
Exalts and hallows; nought so mean but, touched
By that essential beauty, grows divine. "