Classic Poem

Beside the lone coast's utter solitude,
I fill thy spirit with the ocean's voice,
As lone sea-caves are fill'd; or haunt thy brain
With singing winds and clamour of joyful birds
In heaven afloat. Thine eyes of trust and love
Transfigure with an ardent violet
From the bright zenith's royal altitude.
Now sunset's bloom of rose has tinged thy cheeks;
The lanes and gardens, full of floral scents,
Make thy white robes magnolian. Now thy speech
To day-long melody of summer-months
Is modulated; life's harp-harmonies
Have mellow'd all the movements of thy limbs.
Behold, I face thee—with thy hair unbound—
To meet the magic of a moon at full;
High praise of Dian, the beloved, the crown'd,
The plenteous queen, has drawn her tawny light
To make thy nimbus. Now the choir of stars
Has tranquillised the waters of thy soul,
Till thou art hush'd and hallow'd and subdued.
Behind the veils of matter and of time,
The secret beauty shines, and that within
Thy gracious sacrament of outward form
Makes answer, leaping toward the actual
With parabolic bursts of melody.

So shine that age when every maid and youth
Shall equal glories wear, such crowns assume,
And in the mystic city of the blest
No sun shall set, nor moon shall need to rise,
But there the Christ-light of the human soul
In house and street abide!