Classic Poem

From out the mists of Old Japan,
From antique China's wizard gloom,
Again your pallid shapes I scan,
Ye spirits of an Orient tomb
Whose presences around the room
In koro, beaker, shrine, or tray,
Vague fear from ancient faith exhume
By symbols in the cloisonne .

The cobalt blue of glazed Kozan,
This spun lure of an extinct loom,
The inro, and the lacquer fan,
Dream of their godown's far perfume —
But, o'er them all supreme, resume
Your cabalistic signs their sway,
And set my soul to thought of doom
By symbols in the cloisonne .

The virgin breast of Fuji-San;
Tomoye like the curling spume;
Jiu with its labyrinthine plan;
Flat frozen plum and lotos-bloom;
Serene Ho-wo of brilliant plume;
Dread Tatsu, and Kara-shishi gay —
All these their fateful powers assume
By symbols in the cloisonne .

Envoy

Spirits, your shrines I 'll gild and groom:
Only declare to me, I pray,
From all Life's ills you guard, ah, whom,
By symbols in the cloisonne ?