On
that last night before we went
From out the doors where I was bred,
I dream’d a vision of the dead,
Which
left my after-morn content.
Methought
I dwelt within a hall,
And maidens with me: distant hills
From hidden summits fed with rills
A
river sliding by the wall.
The
hall with harp and carol rang.
They sang of what is wise and good
And graceful. In the centre stood
A
statue veil’d, to which they sang;
And
which, tho’ veil’d, was known to me,
The shape of him I loved, and love
For ever: then flew in a dove
And
brought a summons from the sea:
And
when they learnt that I must go
They wept and wail’d, but led the way
To where a little shallop lay
At
anchor in the flood below;
And
on by many a level mead,
And shadowing bluff that made the banks,
We glided winding under ranks
Of
iris, and the golden reed;
And
still as vaster grew the shore
And roll’d the floods in grander space,
The maidens gather’d strength and grace
And
presence, lordlier than before;
And
I myself, who sat apart
And watch’d them, wax’d in every limb;
I felt the thews of Anakim,
The
pulses of a Titan’s heart;
As
one would sing the death of war,
And one would chant the history
Of that great race, which is to be,
And
one the shaping of a star;
Until
the forward-creeping tides
Began to foam, and we to draw
From deep to deep, to where we saw
A
great ship lift her shining sides.
The
man we loved was there on deck,
But thrice as large as man he bent
To greet us. Up the side I went,
And
fell in silence on his neck:
Whereat
those maidens with one mind
Bewail’d their lot; I did them wrong:
‘We served thee here’ they said, ‘so long,
And
wilt thou leave us now behind?’
So
rapt I was, they could not win
An answer from my lips, but he
Replying, ‘Enter likewise ye
And
go with us:’ they enter’d in.
And
while the wind began to sweep
A music out of sheet and shroud,
We steer’d her toward a crimson cloud
That
landlike slept along the deep.