THE
MOON-PATH
The full,
clear moon uprose and spread
Her cold, pale splendor o’er
the sea;
A light-strewn path that seemed to lead
Outward into eternity.
Between the darkness and the gleam
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An old-world spell encompassed
me:
Methought that in a godlike dream
I trod upon the sea.
And lo! upon
that glimmering road,
In shining companies unfurled,
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The trains of many a primal god,
The monsters of the elder world;
Strange creatures that, with silver wings,
Scarce touched the ocean’s thronging
floor,
The phantoms of old tales, and things
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Whose shapes are known no more.
Giants and demi-gods who once
Were dwellers of the earth and
sea,
And they who from Deucalion’s stones,
Rose men without an infancy;
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Beings on
whose majestic lids
Time’s solemn secrets seemed
to dwell,
Tritons and pale-limbed Nereids,
And forms of heaven and hell.
Some who were heroes long of yore,
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When the great world was hale
and young;
And some whose marble lips yet pour
The murmur of an antique tongue;
Sad queens, whose names are like soft moans,
Whose griefs were written up
in gold;
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And some who on their silver thrones
Were goddesses of old.
As if I had
been dead indeed,
And come into some after-land,
I saw them pass me, and take heed,
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And touch me with each mighty
hand;
And evermore a murmurous stream,
So beautiful they seemed to
me,
Not less than in a godlike dream
I trod the shining sea.
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