Full of Zeus the cities: full of Zeus the harbours: full of Zeus are all the ways of men.
WHAT domination of what darkness dies this hour, | |
| And through what new, rejoicing, winged, ethereal power | |
| O’erthrown, the cells opened, the heart released from fear? | |
| Gay twilight and grave twilight pass. The stars appear | |
| O’er the prodigious, smouldering, dusky, city flare. | 5 |
| The hanging gardens of Babylon were not more fair | |
| Than these blue flickering glades, where childhood in its glee | |
| Re-echoes with fresh voice the heaven-lit ecstasy. | |
| Yon girl whirls like an eastern dervish. Her dance is | |
| No less a god-intoxicated dance than his, | 10 |
| Though all unknowing the arcane fire that lights her feet, | |
| What motions of what starry tribes her limbs repeat. | |
| I, too, firesmitten, cannot linger: I know there lies | |
| Open somewhere this hour a gate to Paradise, | |
| Its blazing battlements with watchers thronged, O where? | 15 |
| I know not, but my flame-winged feet shall lead me there. | |
| O, hurry, hurry, unknown shepherd of desires, | |
| And with thy flock of bright imperishable fires | |
| Pen me within the starry fold, ere the night falls | |
| And I am left alone below immutable walls, | 20 |
| Or am I there already, and is it Paradise | |
| To look on mortal things with an immortal’s eyes? | |
| Above the misty brilliance the streets assume | |
| A night-dilated blue magnificence of gloom | |
| Like many-templed Nineveh tower beyond tower; | 25 |
| And I am hurried on in this immortal hour. | |
| Mine eyes beget new majesties: my spirit greets | |
| The trams, the high-built glittering galleons of the streets | |
| That float through twilight rivers from galaxies of light. | |
| Nay, in the Fount of Days they rise, they take their flight, | 30 |
| And wend to the great deep, the Holy Sepulchre. | |
| Those dark misshapen folk to be made lovely there | |
| Hurry with me, not all ignoble as we seem, | |
| Lured by some inexpressible and gorgeous dream. | |
| The earth melts in my blood. The air that I inhale | 35 |
| Is like enchanted wine poured from the Holy Grail. | |
| What was that glimmer then? Was it the flash of wings | |
| As through the blinded mart rode on the King of Kings? | |
| O stay, departing glory, stay with us but a day, | |
| And burning seraphim shall leap from out our clay, | 40 |
| And plumed and crested hosts shall shine where men have been, | |
| Heaven hold no lordlier court than earth at College Green. | |
| Ah, no, the wizardy is over; the magic flame | |
| That might have melted all in beauty fades as it came. | |
| The stars are far and faint and strange. The night draws down. | 45 |
| Exiled from light, forlorn, I walk in Dublin Town. | |
| Yet had I might to lift the veil, the will to dare, | |
| The fiery rushing chariots of the Lord are there, | |
| The whirlwind path, the blazing gates, the trumpets blown, | |
| The halls of heaven, the majesty of throne by throne, | 50 |
| Enraptured faces, hands uplifted, welcome sung | |
| By the thronged gods, tall, golden-coloured, joyful, young. | |
