The sunshine, and the grace of falling rain,
The fluttering daffodil, the lilt of bees,
The blossom on the boughs of almond trees,
The waving of the wheat upon the plain—
And all that knows not effort, strife or strain,
And all that bears the signature of ease,
The plunge of ships that dance before the breeze
The flight across the twilight of the crane:
And all that joyous is, and young, and free,
That tastes of morning and the laughing surf;
The dawn, the dew, the newly turned-up turf,
The sudden smile, the unexpressive prayer,
The artless art, the untaught dignity,—
You speak them in the passage of an air.
WAGNER
O strange awakening to a world of gloom,
And baffled moonbeams and delirious stars,
Of souls that moan behind forbidden bars,
And waving forests swept by wings of doom;
Of heroes falling in unhappy fight,
And winged messengers from eyries dim;
And mountains ringed with flame, and shapes that swim
In the deep river’s green translucent night.
O restless soul, for ever seeking bliss,
Thirsty for ever and unsatisfied,
Whether the woodland starts to the echoing horn,
Or dying Tristram moans by shores forlorn,
Or Siegfried rides through fire to wake his bride,
And shakes the whirling planets with a kiss.
SHELLEY
Singer of cloud and star and rushing stream,
Let me bring but one garland to thy shrine,
For when a boy I drank of the dews divine
That in thy rainbow-coloured chalice gleam.
I scaled the silver ladder of thy dream,
And dizzy with the wonder of that wine,
I heard the song, and saw the eyes that shine
Unveiled, within the sanctuary supreme.
Then, like Actæon I became the prey,
The hunted quarry of remorseless hounds;
Hark! in the distance I can hear them bay!
But in my heart the vision and the voice
Endure; and though they slay me, I rejoice—
I saw that light, I heard those starry sounds.