The winged horseman.
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Bright forms came shaping through the dim blue air,
And voices spake to him they wist not of,
And while he looked and listened, the black steed
Lay down and slumbered.
Farther on, I saw
A river with alternate light and shade,
Ringed like a serpent. Some of those who passed.
Waked only by the cold lap of its waves,
Slept on their flying coursers.
Woven leaves
Replaced the halo. Those afar, beheld
The air all rainbowed o'er the youth. A veil
Betwixt his vision and the outer world
Lay like a vapour that, dissolving, spreads
Into wild phantoms, as the mists of sleep
Wreathe into those strange shapes that men call dreams.
And voices spake to him they wist not of,
And while he looked and listened, the black steed
Lay down and slumbered.
Farther on, I saw
A river with alternate light and shade,
Ringed like a serpent. Some of those who passed.
Waked only by the cold lap of its waves,
Slept on their flying coursers.
Woven leaves
Replaced the halo. Those afar, beheld
The air all rainbowed o'er the youth. A veil
Betwixt his vision and the outer world
Lay like a vapour that, dissolving, spreads
Into wild phantoms, as the mists of sleep
Wreathe into those strange shapes that men call dreams.
Methought they paused upon the river bank,
Rider and horse. The steed, with planted hoofs,
Stood resolute, and once the rider reeled
As giddy with the flowing of the waves,
And once he turned, with lingering, loving looks
Rider and horse. The steed, with planted hoofs,
Stood resolute, and once the rider reeled
As giddy with the flowing of the waves,
And once he turned, with lingering, loving looks
