Irene's Dream
We soulless instincts, changing essences,
Voices and colours wandering everywhere,
Swarm round his wasteful track by slow degrees,
The rude rents to repair,
And with new growths replace the loss of what was fair.
Voices and colours wandering everywhere,
Swarm round his wasteful track by slow degrees,
The rude rents to repair,
And with new growths replace the loss of what was fair.
With delicate mosses and with gracious weeds
*****
But souls there are that live in unison
With all the beautiful in heaven and earth;
Our darlings they—and each a lonely one,
Predestined from its birth
To the pale gloriole of unkinned, unmated worth.
With all the beautiful in heaven and earth;
Our darlings they—and each a lonely one,
Predestined from its birth
To the pale gloriole of unkinned, unmated worth.
And such is she around whose nest we hover
And hold her footsteps from the world's high road,
And all her being with a mystery cover,
That in her wild abode
Mankind may shun her beauty as the fool the toad.
And hold her footsteps from the world's high road,
And all her being with a mystery cover,
That in her wild abode
Mankind may shun her beauty as the fool the toad.
Alas! we shield her but with fantasies;
Our music is a phantom of man's mind;
Yet brainless fancies oft and hollow lies,
Mere nothings, thin as wind,
Have shut out a whole world of beauty from mankind.
Our music is a phantom of man's mind;
Yet brainless fancies oft and hollow lies,
Mere nothings, thin as wind,
Have shut out a whole world of beauty from mankind.
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