V
Dreams
They mock the present and they haunt the past,
And in the future there is naught agleam
With hope, the soul desires, that at last
The heart, pursuing, does not find a dream.
AFTERWORD
What vague traditions do the golden eves,
What legends do the dawns
Inscribe in fire on Heaven’s azure leaves,
The red sun colophons?
What ancient stories do the waters verse?
What tales of war and love
Do winds within the Earth’s vast house rehearse,
God’s stars stand guard above?
Would I could know them as they are expressed
In hue and melody!
And say, in words, the beauties they suggest,
Language their mystery!
And in one song magnificently rise,
The music of the spheres,
That more than marble should immortalize
My name in after years.
