Vishtaspa
i.
For thirty years Vishtaspa reigned alone,
No King above him in the empty skies,
No Lord of all earth's fallen sovereignties
To mock the mighty tedium of his throne.
To him the secrets of the stars were known
Who was above all sages great and wise;
Yet as the years dragged on without surprise
He wearied of this world that was his own.
Earth is too narrow for the dreaming Soul.
Ay, tho' she hold it all from pole to pole
Her least desire is wider than the whole.
Therefore who knows the limit of his power
Disdains the trivial baubles of an hour.
And plunges where the seas of silence roll.
ii.
"Life is a dream," Vishtaspa said, " wherein
The dreamer lives alone; the rest is vain . . .
My dream shall end, for I would sleep again;
Wherefore farewell, glitter and glare and din!"
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