Ode to Beauty.
Spirit of Beauty ! thou
1
That permeatest the grand old universe,2
I fly to thee, I kiss thy radiant brow—3
Glory-lit by gleams from paradise—4
And pray thee to disperse,5
Beautifullest essence !6
By thy rainbow presence,7
The sorrow-cloud that haunts these aching eyes,8
And dawn upon me with that tenderest light9
Which streams from off thy pinions, seraph-seemer, bright10
Thou, in blue-swooning space,11
Where outmost comet flares across the void12
His gleamy torch, findest a dwelling-place ;13
And this round world is cinctured with thy smiles
;14
Our souls are never with thy sweetness cloyed,15
As sunset limes still murmurous with bees,16
Whether o’er argent seas17
Thou sprinklest many little gleaming isles18
Girdled with chiming foam and foliage crowned,19
Or shadowing the deep with rough rocks moss-embrowned.20
Thy power to bless is felt21
When lifts the fair sweet moon above the pines22
Her silver crest, and loveliness is spelt23
In the deepening azure by star-galaxies ;24
But far more when Orion’s jewelled belt25
Dims at the ruby burst of dawn, when shines26
The misted mead with dewy brilliancies,27
And the dusk forest thrills28
With throbbings strong of wind-waked symphonies,29
Whilst thou, purple-enrobed, queen’st it from laughing hills.30
Fair flowers that braided shine31
Upon the kirtle of the moist-lipped spring,32
Or in the lap of summer, all are thine ;33
Drooped hyacinths, the sapphire sentinels34
About a runlet’s crystal issuing,35
Dew-lustred violets, spired asphodels,36
And gleam of poppies among golden corn ;37
Twin roses check to cheek where garden glooms38
Are incensed by the spicy plumes39
Of julyflower refreshing as the breath of morn.40
The dim wood greenly folds41
Thy shadowy form within his braided boughs,42
Droops his plump fruitage which the autumn moulds43
For thy young lip ; or when keen frost endows44
His wintered arms with silvery foliage,45
Thou lov’st to watch our valley-slopes of snow46
Take, like flushed beauty’s brow, a vermeil glow47
From the red west—foam-footed Thetis too,48
Bids thee glad welcome to her breezy blue,49
For thou art loved all o’er thy bourneless heritage.50