Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/102

92 With rich, unspent emotions, deep with youth;

"Let others paint the lily and the rose,

Let others carve the mortal and the god,

Let others pour celestial harmonies,

So may Love give me to be pure within,

And wear on earth his heavenly form!" He ceased,

And as with silver trumpets rang the wood,

A blare of music, and the laurel leaves

Rustled, and silence made the sound more sweet.

Ere to the Roamer's lips had sprung the voice

That rose within his heart, the tense scene broke,

As fades weird magic at the spoken word;

Only, far South, a glimmering water shone;

A wind woke moaning overhead; a pine,

Framing the offing, cried aloud. He saw

The glimmering water, heard the pine's great cry,

As if they were but portions of himself,—

So passion wrought, ebbing from ear and eye,

Body and soul, discharging the rapt mood.

"Great nature's frame!" he murmured low, "O Thou,

The awful emanation of the mind,

The base and apex of creative power,

So vast, so trackless, so impenetrable!

A cyclone, whirling in the wilderness!

A water-spout on the untravelled sea!