Classic Poem

Forespent I sat at the morning's gate
And Psyche beside with drooping wings,
And I moaned, “We have come in a world of hate
Where the song-bird songless wings.”

And she: “Thou hast lived in the fierce hot light
Till thy mind is gray with remembered things,
But between the stars the air is bright
With a song no singer sings.

“I have waited; mine eyes are liquid for thee,
For thou who wert lost in the elder years;
I have come, and thy passions throbbing sea
Is salt with tears.

“Too long have we dwelt apart, alone,
I in the shadow, thou in the sun;
Oh, bare thy breast that I build my throne,
For the storm is run.

“Through the violet lustre of my hair
Let a sleep steal over my golden eyes
And I shall forget the tireless air
And the cruel skies.

“Sleep, sleep, and never to wake again,
But ever to lapse from dream to dream
And taste the joy that is near to pain,
Where the worlds not are but seem.

“I am thy soul, God's child am I,
And the day when thy mighty mind turns small
In the simple nearness of the sky,
I shall wake and hear thee call.

“Mine eyes shall unfold in a world of morn,
Through the gates of night by music blown
We shall watch dissolve the world's great scorn—
On the breast of God, alone.”