Blue wonder of the sea and luminous sky,
A thousand wonders in thy dreamlit face,--
Eyes that behold afar the turrets high
Of Ilium, and the transient mortal grace
Of Deirdre's sadness, all the conquering race
Of Athens, --eyes that saw Eden's beauty lie
In passionate adoration--visions trace
Across the tender brooding of the sigh
That wrecked a city and made chieftains die.
Forward not backward turns the mystic shine
Of those far-seeing orbs that track the gleam-
The fleecy marvel of the cloud is line
On line the wizard tracery of a dream.
O lad, who buildest not of things that seem,
Beyond what bounds of visioning divine
Came that far smile, from what long-strayed sun-
beam
Caught thou the radiance, from what fostering vine
The power to build and mould the deep design?
Knowest thou the secret that thy brush would tell,
Is all the dream a bubbled splendor white,
Beyond those castles cloud-bound, does there dwell
The eternal silence of the dark--or light?
Will thy hand hold the pen which shall indict
The symboled mystery-write the final knell
Of rainbow fancy-is the distant sight
A nothingless encircled by a spell
Of gleaming bubbles wrought of beauty's shell?
In vain to question, where the mystery
Of Youth's short golden dream is lord and king.
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