Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/358

322 And fled in pretty frowns away

Like the flitting boreal lights,

Rippling roses in northern nights,

Or like the thrill of Æolian strings

In which the sudden wind-god rings.

In caves and hollow trees he crept

And near the wolf and panther slept.

He came to the green ocean's brim

And saw the wheeling sea-birds skim,

Summer and winter, o'er the wave,

Like creatures of a skiey mould,

Impassible to heat or cold.

He stood before the tumbling main

With joy too tense for sober brain;

He shared the life of the element,

The tie of blood and home was rent:

As if in him the welkin walked,

The winds took flesh, the mountains talked,

And he the bard, a crystal soul

Sphered and concentric with the whole.

II

The Dervish whined to Said,

Thou didst not tarry while I prayed.

Beware the fire that Eblis burned."

But Saadi coldly thus returned,

Once with manlike love and fear

I gave thee for an hour my ear,

I kept the sun and stars at bay,