Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/103

Rh Eddy of mortal dust! O infinite Sphere,

How far thou stretchest, illimitable dream!

Path of the Light! mould of the earthly soul!

The Phantom of all Immanence! Unknown!"

His shining face seemed listening to the vague

He searched with restless eyes; a surf of cloud

Broke on the distant highlands, glittering spurs,

Whose foothills, rounding up in wooded knolls,

Arose to meet him coming, from afar.

Ridges of broken country lay between,

Outcropping limestone over meadowy gulfs,

Green laps of summer; lakes like gems were set,

And many a vaporous glen, far palisade,

Led the eye captive through the violet haze,

Where the great river wandered down the west;

But he turned southward toward that watery sheen.

Young was the heart that looked on the fair world;

Young was the foot that bent down flower and fern

Across the valley; many a faëry ring

He trod in the still forest, unespied;

And many a caverned gnome, deep underground,

Heard his faint footfall, and the elfin bands,

Hidden by bush and covert, listened nigh.

So, fancy-bound and beauty-thralled, he roved

New pastures, not like those, severe and pure,

Where first he swept the pine-bough by, and saw