GAY youth, that goes, with some familiar friend,
On quest of hopes heroic, quest of shores
Untravelled, with the heart of conquerors,
Eager and brave, and talking without end
Of high, magnificent, and cleanly things
Rich as the sunset, swift as cormorants’ wings
That sweep the waters,—youth, whose destiny
Sails like a ship upon a virgin sea.
2nd Spirit.
WHOSE heart is as a glowing forge at night
Wherein the blacksmith, gleaming with his sweat
Like some gigantic negro in the light
Of angry fires that touch his limbs of jet,
Strikes at the clanging anvil of his thought.
3rd Spirit.
SING to him, sing! till he be so distraught,
So drunken and enraptured,
That all his heart be captured.
Folly (to Adventure).
GIPSY, what have you in your pack
Bound with old thongs across your back?
Poplin, dimity, huckaback,
Who draws the prize?
Tumble your treasures out on the grass:
A wine-dark ruby, a shine of brass,
Aladdin’s lamp, and a magic glass,
And a last surprise.
Dip in your hands, you wayward crew,
The peddler caters for all of you;
You press, like a crowd of girls, anew,
With your eager eyes;
Dip in your hands, there are treasures free,
Curious pearls, and chalcedony,
And the cap of invisibility,
But the thing you will none of you ever see
Is the last surprise.