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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NATURAL MAGIC (1), by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: From whence has flown this argosy of air Alternate Author Name(s): A. E. | |||
FROM whence has flown this argosy of air That o'er the forest dropped its merchandise, Spilling a fire so rich, a wine so rare? Through the long glade from russet floor to skies Darkness and fire are revellers everywhere. The leaves like gold and emerald butterflies With myriad quiverings roof the forest glade. Around me where I lie The orange flames race through the tattered shade Dazzling the downcast eye. Downcast the eye; but not the heart within; The aerial wine delights: the unblinding fire Opens the ways, far past the leafy din And revelry of light; by what desire Borne onward through invisible gates to win To that high region where unto one lyre, Played by the Magian of the Beautiful, The starry feet keep time, And these last hyacinths in shadows cool Echo with distant rhyme. Distant! The wizard air has breathed away The heaviness from earth. The sombre trees To cloud change unimaginably; nay; To fire, to mind. Ancestral images, Ere that unfallen Eden had its day Of yet undimmed forest and flower, these Living and lustrous and ethereal shapes I see with sight unblind, In heavenly valleys or on glittering capes Glowed in the Magian's mind. They fade: the forest flickers round me now: Once more the incessant birth and death of light On russet floor, green leaf and burnished bough Dazzle. Yet still the visionary sight Holds faintly, as these thicker airs allow, A magic mist of dancers pale and bright, A foam of golden faces from the spheres Beyond sun rise or set, With eyes that had for long forgotten tears Or never had been wet. Vanished the angelic trees and beings all! The wood darkens: the wind has ceased to fan The glade to flame. Oh, it was magical! Can I recall? The blinding sunlight ran Over the burning hyacinth to fall Starry upon yon water. So began The incantation of the light which brought Rapt face and fiery wing, The Heaven of Heavens: a myriad marvel wrought And from so slight a thing! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FROLIC by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL IMMORTALITY by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL RECONCILIATION by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL SACRIFICE by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL THE GIFT by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A CALL by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A FAREWELL by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A HOLY HILL by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A LAST COUNSEL by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A LEADER by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL |
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