Classic Poem

The airy larks ceased shouting in the lift
With fearless voice pitched at the utmost height,
Attendants of the sun, the steadfast, swift,
And mighty hunter of the thronging night,
What time a wanderer from a mountain-crest
Beheld the mist-hung, crimson-lighted west.

A hectic village — pleasure's summer daughter —
A bay with boats, a frith most like a lake,
With ruby stain spilled on the hither water,
And on the further, shade in mass and flake,
Between the mountain and the mountains lay
Unseen by him. His eye's enchanted ray.

Burnished the sunset with a melting glance
Of more ethereal fire, that leapt along
The serried summits like the golden lance
The cloudy champion, thundering, flings among.
The huddled, quaking hills. The west obeyed
The summons of his eye, and quick repaid.

His gift of added splendour, opening wide
The gate between the two eternities.
Forth issued first a streaming billowy tide
Of dulcet music as of psalteries,
Crested with fierier sound; with it broke out
Flushes of throbbing colour like the shout.

Of people newly freed, with trumpets, gongs,
Drums, clarions — their hues so pulsed and lived;
From far within there floated gusts of songs
Sung by sweet voices. Then his soul received
In that baptismal flood of resonant light
And luminous sound the gift of second-sight.

Dreams are the blossoms borne by rooted thought;
And visions watched by mightiest seers have been
Bright shades of meditative fancies caught
On some midnight's immaculate, black screen;
But he beheld his lady in the sky;
And all the heroes whom he loved passed by.
They issued shadowy from the glowing door,
And swept like regal clouds with lofty gait,
Bending before her. On the azure floor
Enthroned she sat in sweet and solemn state
Above both day and night, where time is heard
Singing soft snatches like a far-perched bird.