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

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,

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

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;

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,

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;

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,

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.