Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/144

134 Beauty dissevered from reality!

"Mirage!" the Roamer murmured 'neath his breath;

And long it clung unto his patient eyes,

Remembering other days and visions gone

That yet within his mind were luminous,

Though never on the earth their sweet light fell.

"Illusion! how dost thou companion me,

Me, the Truth-Seeker!" scarce he spoke aloud.

"Art thou, O Dream, its only mortal mould?

For I was born a dreamer, and fair things

Wove mystery in my eyes; beauty o'erflowed

With spirit, and with emanating forms

Peopled my morning world; oft to my side,

With welcome in their silent eyes divine,

Companionable the young gods came; and, most,

Love stood beside me, gazing eagerly,

And took my hand, and sealed my lips with fire

That in my body burns immortally.

Formless and plastic, like a cloud in heaven

That drinks the sun, earth felt my dawning soul

Glow in that morn, and mould her elements;

And many a shape, body of my desire,

Flushed with sweet light, and faded; and Love smiled.

Birth after birth to fairer beauty flew;

Form after form unclothed in nobler grace;