XVI
What, there's nothing in the moon noteworthy?
Nay: for if that moon could love a mortal,
Use, to charm him (so to fit a fancy),
°[160][All] her magic ('tis the old sweet mythos),°
She would turn a new side to her mortal,
Side unseen of herdsman, huntsman, steersman,—
°[163][Blank] to Zoroaster° on his terrace,
°[164][Blind] to Galileo° on his turret.
°[165][Dumb] to Homer, dumb to Keats°—him, even!
Think, the wonder of the moonstruck mortal—
When she turns round, comes again in heaven,
Opens out anew for worse or better!
Proves she like some portent of an iceberg
170Swimming full upon the ship it founders,
Hungry with huge teeth of splintered crystals?
Proves she as the paved work of a sapphire,
Seen by Moses when he climbed the mountain?[page 233]
°[174][Moses],° Aaron,° Nadab,° and Abihu°
Climbed and saw the very God, the Highest,
Stand upon the paved work of a sapphire.
Like the bodied heaven in his clearness
Shone the stone, the sapphire of that paved work,
When they ate and drank and saw God also!