Classic Poem

" Spirit! what art thou erecting
On the heights of contemplation,
Where the vistas blue and shadowy,
Fade in airy clouds away?
At the fane of meditation
Art thou bowed to-day? "

" Lo! I climbed in floating ether
When the first tints of the dawning,
O'er the pale stars chaste in grandeur,
Shed a stream of liquid light;
In the azure calm of morning
Gleamed a vision bright.

" Twas air-fashioned: faint, dissolving,
Seemed its statuesque proportions,
Yet imperious and majestic
Were its gestures and its mien;
And all beauty seemed distortions
To this, — fairest ever seen.

" Round its head a circlet shaping,
Wove a cloud its golden tissues,
Where these words were writ in splendor:
" Ideal Beauty is my name;
I from life draw finest issues,
Wouldst thou do the same?"

" Poised aloft on heights serenest,
There she stands, — that radiant vision.
At the fane of meditation,
Wouldst thou know, O questioner?
Lo! I bow in calm decision,
Yield my thoughts to her.

" 'Mid the vistas blue and shadowy,
'Mid the ether iris-tinted,
I erect Ideal Perfection,
And then worship at her shrine;
To the poet she has hinted
Sense of things divine. "