Caroling Dusk/Questing
QUESTING
Let me learn now where Beauty is;My day is spent too far toward night
To wander aimlessly and miss her place;To grope, eyes shut, and fingers touching space.
Her maidens I have known, seen durance beside,Handmaidens to the Queen, whose duty bidsThem lie and lure afield their Vestal’s acolyte,Lest a human shake the throne, lest a god should know his might:Nereid, daughter of the Trident, steering in her shell,Paused in voyage, smile beguiling, tempted and I fell;Spiteful dryads, sport forsaking, tossing birchen wreathes,Left the Druidic priests they teased soIn the oaken trees, crying, “Ho a mortal! here a believer!”Bound me, she who held the sceptre, stricken by her, ah, deceiver . . .But let me learn now where Beauty is;I was born to know her mysteries,And needing wisdom I must go in vain:Being sworn bring to some hither land,Leaf from her brow, light from her torchéd hand.