POEMS. THE SPHINX. THE Sphinx is drowsy, Her wings are furled: Her ear is heavy, She broods on the world. "Who'll tell me my secret, The ages have kept? I awaited the seer While they slumbered and slept : "The fate of the man-child, The meaning of man; Known fruit of the unknown; Dædalian plan; Out of sleeping a waking, "Erect as a sunbeam, In beautiful motion The thrush plies his wings; Kind leaves of his covert, Your silence he sings. "The waves, unashamed, Firmly draw, firmly drive, "Sea, earth, air, sound, silence, Plant, quadruped, bird, By one music enchanted, One deity stirred, — Night veileth the morning, "The babe by its mother The sun is its toy; Without cloud, in its eyes; And the sum of the world "But man crouches and blushes, Absconds and conceals; He creepeth and peepeth, Jealous glancing around, "Out spoke the great mother, At the sound of her accents I heard a poet answer "Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges Are pleasant songs to me. Deep love lieth under These pictures of time; They fade in the light of Their meaning sublime. "The fiend that man harries Can't trance him again, Which his eyes seek in vain. "To vision profounder, At no goal will arrive ; The heavens that now draw him With sweetness untold, Once found,- for new heavens "Dull Sphinx, Jove keep thy five wits; Thy sight is growing blear; Rue, myrrh and cummin for the Sphinx, Her muddy eyes to clear!" The old Sphinx bit her thick lip, Said, "Who taught thee me to name? I am thy spirit, yoke-fellow, "Thou art the unanswered question; Couldst see thy proper eye, Alway it asketh, asketh; And each answer is a lie. So take thy quest through nature, It through thousand natures ply: Ask on, thou clothed eternity; Time is the false reply." Uprose the merry Sphinx, And crouched no more in stone; She melted into purple cloud, She silvered in the moon ; She spired into a yellow flame; She flowered in blossoms red; She flowed into a foaming wave; She stood Monadnoc's head. Thorough a thousand voices |