Illusion (Howard)
(In Illusion, seeking to express myself in the clearest manner possible, I have, for this effect, violated the rules common of rhythm and poetry.)
I stood upon surf-booming cliffs
And heard the tide-race roaring, roaring strong and deep and free;
On tall wind wings the white clouds sudded by.
Far to the eat the ocean met the sky
And the booming cliffs re-echoed to the thunder of the sea.
Green are the waves and fringed with white the crest:
Strong colour contrasts, turquoise, sapphire, now.
Tumbling the jade green billows from the west
Roars the wild sea-wind. Keep your sea. I go.
Stranger to me the fierce red-blooded zest,
The wild beast urge, the primitive behest.
Fierce primal impulses are thoughts I do not know.
I've ever dwelt 'mid worlds of vaguer tone,
All tints and colors merging soft and dim,
No garish flare of reds at the desert's rim—
The sea-winds murmur there a pleasing drone;
The sea-fogs grace the ocean, friendly, grey.
'Mid soft-hued woodlands shy nymphs have their play.
Ad so I'll none of all this garish joy,
These blazing dawns that leap like maids o'er-bold;
The flaming greens and reds and yellows cloy,
Barbaric tints of crimson, blazing gold.
The worlds I seek are like soft, golden chimes;
Soft merging tints that match the breeze's croon
And no false note plays in the world-scheme rhymes—
I seek soft, vague plateaus of the moon.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 87 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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