Page:Poems Barrett.djvu/48

Thou, with calm, floating pinions both ways spread,
     Erect, irradiated,
     Didst sting my wheel of glory
     On, on before thee,
Along the Godlight, by a quickening touch!
        Ha,ha!
Around, around the firmamental ocean,
I swam expanding with delirious fire!
Around, around, around, in blind desire
To be drawn upward to the Infinite—
        Ha,ha!

Until, the motion flinging out the motion
To a keen whirl of passion and avidity,—
To a blind whirl of rapture and delight,—
I wound in girant orbits, smooth and white
     With that intense rapidity!
     Around, around,
     I wound and interwound,
While all the cyclic heavens about me spun!
Stars, planets, suns, and moons, dilated broad,
Then flashed together into a single sun,
     And wound, and wound in one;
And as they wound I wound,—around, around,
In a great fire, I almost took for God!
      Ha, ha, Heosphoros!

    Thine angel glory sinks
     Down from me, down from me—
    My beauty falls, methinks,
     Down from thee, down from thee!
      O my light-bearer,
      0 my path-preparer,
    Gone from me, gone from me!
     Ai, ai, Heosphoros!
I cannot kindle underneath the brow
Of this new angel here, who is not Thou:
All things are altered since that time ago,—
And if I shine at eve, I shall not know—