Page:Reuben and other poems.pdf/67



I stood on some advanced cliff Heading the harbourage of Heaven, and watch’d, From out the open deep, their voyage done, Ships making port; and these I knew for souls, Coming from earthly travel home to God, But in the very guise of ships they came; Diverse in build, of varying speed, and size Unequal; and among them, as I look’d, Chiefly conspicuous, two.

The first swam in, Beauty incarnate! From the distant blue Stately emerging, gliding gradual on, Her visionary towers of swelling snow, Aerial, azure-spaced, offended not That crystal atmosphere, shamed not one beam