As the sad sand upon the desert's verge, Insensible to mortal grief and strife; As the long weeds that float among the surge, She folds indifference round her budding life.
Her eyes are carved of minerals pure and cold, And in her strange symbolic nature where An angel mingles with the sphinx of old,
Where all is gold and steel and light and air, For ever, like a vain star, unafraid Shines the cold hauteur of the sterile maid.
I would, when I compose my solemn verse, Sleep near the heaven as do astrologers, Near the high bells, and with a dreaming mind Hear their calm hymns blown to me on the wind.
Out of my tower, with chin upon my hands, I'll watch the singing, babbling human bands; And see clock-towers like spars against the sky, And heavens that bring thoughts of eternity;
And softly, through the mist, will watch the birth Of stars in heaven and lamplight on the earth; The threads of smoke that rise above the town; The moon that pours her pale enchantment down.
Seasons will pass till Autumn fades the rose; And when comes Winter with his weary snows, I'll shut the doors and window-casements tight, And build my faery palace in the night.
Then I will dream of blue horizons deep; Of gardens where the marble fountains weep; Of kisses, and of ever-singing birds-- A sinless Idyll built of innocent words.
And Trouble, knocking at my window-pane And at my closet door, shall knock in vain; I will not heed him with his stealthy tread, Nor from my reverie uplift my head;
For I will plunge deep in the pleasure still Of summoning the spring-time with my will, Drawing the sun out of my heart, and there With burning thoughts making a summer air.
The world is equal to the child's desire Who plays with pictures by his nursery fire-- How vast the world by lamplight seems! How small When memory's eyes look back, remembering all!--
One morning we set forth with thoughts aflame, Or heart o'erladen with desire or shame; And cradle, to the song of surge and breeze, Our own infinity on the finite seas.
Some flee the memory of their childhood's home; And others flee their fatherland; and some, Star-gazers drowned within a woman's eyes, Flee from the tyrant Circe's witcheries;
And, lest they still be changed to beasts, take flight For the embrasured heavens, and space, and light, Till one by one the stains her kisses made In biting cold and burning sunlight fade.