Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/98

72 There rose a stately mountain dark and blue,

On whose far peak there shone a palace fair—

A wondrous sight! And as I gazed there flew

From the gemm'd porches of that palace rare

Some god or angel with a golden lyre,

And, sailing into the pellucid air,

He sang to me and set my soul on fire!—

"O dreamer, wouldst thou scale the summit where

Yon palace stands? If this be thy desire

"Thy task is great, for at thy feet there flows

The mighty Sea of Knowledge, thro' whose deep

Thy path shall lie,—for only he who knows

"May hope to climb yon silent dizzy steep

Of thought sublime, on whose far peak there glows

The palace where sweet Poesy doth keep

"Her daughters fair, the sweet-voiced Muses Nine."

And when the voice was still I strove to speak,

And faltering said: "O son of Song divine,

"Pray tell me how shall one so mean and weak

In knowledge, and with shallow thought like mine,

E'er climb those heights that palace lair to seek?"

Lo! as I spake a ghostly mist arose

And hid that fairy Vision from my sight;

Fled was the palace fair of flaming rose!