A giant came to me when I was young, My instant will to ask— My earthly Servant, from the earth he sprung Eager for any task! “What wilt thou, O my Master?” he began, “Whatever can be,” I. “Say thy first wish—whate’er thou wilt I can,” The Strong Slave made reply. “Enter the earth and bring its riches forth, For pearls explore the sea.” He brought, from East and West and South and North, All treasures back to me! “Build me a palace wherein I may dwell.” “Awake and see it done,” Spake his great voice at dawn. Oh, miracle That glittered in the sun! “Find me the princess fit for my embrace, The vision of my breast; For her search every clime and every race.” My yearning arms were blessed! “Get me all knowledge.” Sages with their lore, And poets with their songs, Crowded my palace halls at every door, In still, obedient throngs! “Now bring me wisdom.” Long ago he went; (The cold task harder seems:) He did not hasten with the last content— The rest, meanwhile, were dreams! Houseless and poor, on many a trackless road, Without a guide, I found A white-haired phantom with the world his load, Bending him to the ground! “I bring thee wisdom, Master.” Is it he, I marvelled then, in sooth? “Thy palace-builder, beauty-seeker, see!” I saw the Ghost of Youth!
The Lost Genius
More from Poet
-
A Seaside Portrait A GREAT, still Shape, alone, She sits (her harp has fallen) on the sand, And sees her children, one by one, depart:— Her cloak (that hides what sins beside her own!) Wrapped fold on fold about her. Lo, She comforts her fierce heart, As wailing some, and some gay-...
-
On Her Art of Growing Old Gracefully YOU ask a verse, to sing (ah, laughing face!) Your happy art of growing old with grace? O Muse, begin, and let the truth—but hold! First let me see that you are growing old.
-
strong in thy steadfast purpose, be Like some brave master of the sea, Whose keel, by Titan pulses quickened, knows His will where’er he goes. Some isle, palm-roofed, in spiced Pacific air He seeks—though solitary zones apart, Its place long fixed on his deep-studied chart. Fierce...
-
A giant came to me when I was young, My instant will to ask— My earthly Servant, from the earth he sprung Eager for any task! “What wilt thou, O my Master?” he began, “Whatever can be,” I. “Say thy first wish—whate’er thou wilt I can,” The Strong Slave made reply. “Enter the earth and...
-
I watch the leaves that flutter in the wind, Bathing my eyes with coolness and my heart Filling with springs of grateful sense anew, Before my window—in wind and rain and sun. And now the wind is gone and now the rain, And all a motionless moment breathe; and now Playful the wind comes back—...