Classic Poem

Open the casement! From my room,
Perched high upon this dizzy spire,
My blinded eyes behold the bloom
Of gardens in their golden fire.

Oh deep, mysterious recompense —
Time static to my ardent gaze!
No longer mortal veils of sense
Conceal the blissful ray of rays!

Fantastic forests toss their heads
For my immortal youth; on grass
Brighter than jewels do the reds
Of riotous summer roses pass.

I traffic in abysmal seas,
And dive for pearls and coloured shells,
Where, over seaweeds tall as trees,
The waters boom like tenor bells;

Where bearded goblin-fish and sharks,
With fins as large as eagles' wings,
Throw phosphorescent trails of sparks
Which glitter on drowned Spaniards' rings.

From star to star I pilgrimage,
Undaunted in ethereal space;
And laugh because the sun in rage
Shoots harmless arrows at my face.

For even if the skies should flare
In God's last catastrophic blaze,
My happy, blinded eyes would stare
Only upon the ray of rays.