Page:Poems Piatt.djvu/153

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MY ARTIST.
139
What Fantasies of Fairyland
More shadowy were ever planned!

But giants and enchantments make
Not all the glory of his Art:
His vast and varied power can take
In real things a real part.
His latest pictures here I see:
Will you not look at some with me?

First, "Alexander." From his wars,
With arms of awful length he seems
To reach some very-pointed stars,
As if "more worlds" were in his dreams!
But, hush—the Artist tells us why:
"You read—'His hands could touch the sky."[1]

Here—mark how marvellous, how new!—
Above a drowning ship, at night,
Close to the moon the sun shines, too,
While lightnings show in streaks of white——
Still, should my eyes grow dim, ah, then
Their tears will wet those sinking men!

  1. Line from a familiar child's poem in a school-book.