Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/113

Rh Shape that gazed on him from his young heart's depth.

So mortals see, in the dim dusk of earth—

Shadow that is, but substance that shall be—

The infinite beauty of the world diverse

Grow one and integral in fairest forms;

But if the sight clouds o'er, and evil thoughts

Mar and distort those images of grace,

They perish, soul and image, as thou sawest

In the dark wood of warped, degenerate things,

Returning to the uncreated deep.

But, let the soul retain its native ray,

Which is the master-spirit of the eye,

It penetrates the beauteous shows of things

(Such is its nature) to the infinite

That round embosoms it." "Glimpses of this

My first years knew," the Roamer thoughtful, said,

And ocean memories drifted through his mind;

"I do remember me of my dim birth

Beside a pine-hung shore; now mythic lands

Hold less of mystery than that low coast

Where first, a boy, I counted the ninth wave,

And saw it through the emerald swell and gleam,

Make to the beach, and comb, and fall, and shoot

Up to my feet its bright, smooth-sliding foam,

While the long wave resounded down the sands,