They press
forward round
the shell.
1st Spirit.
HOW richly stirs his craving blood to-night
For songs of freedom all among the stars!
Thoughts like a flock of birds in summer light
Circle beyond the reach of lifted arms,
And deeds beyond the scope of life’s alarms
Float into sight,
And pass, yet undefined, through heaven’s bars.
2nd Spirit.
IT is the hour of twilight, still, profound,
When dreams and visions in their legions fly
On fancy’s horses mounted, robed and crowned
With streaming flames, an aureole of fire,
And pass, the eagle shapes of man’s desire,
Towards the sunset bound,
In wingèd ride across the evening sky.
3rd Spirit.
HE stirs disquieted, he stirs again.
The stamping hoofs of that proud galaxy
In passing struck from space the spangled rain
And flung the ardent fragments down to him
That scorched his mortal soul through vision dim.
O shackled soul in pain
Tortured by glimpses of divinity!
2nd Spirit.
WHAT shall we sing in praise of youth? the free,
The clarion years, the redolent years of youth?
Youth that loved gold and scarlet pageantry
And caught the fringe upon the robe of truth?