ONCE of a mazy afternoon, beside that summer sea, I watched a shoal of sunny beams come swimming close to me. Each was a whited candle flamelet, flickering in air; Each was a silver daffodil astonied to be there; Each was a diving summer star, its brightness come to lave; And each a little naked spirit leaping on the wave. And while I sat, and while I dreamed, beside that summer sea, There came the fairest thought of all that ever came to me; The tiny lives of tiny men, no more they seemed to mean Than one of those sweet seeds of light sown on that water green; No more they seemed, no less they seemed, than shimmerings of sky -- The little sunny smiles of God that glisten forth and die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MY FAMILIAR DREAM by PAUL VERLAINE A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 3. AMARYLLIS by THOMAS CAMPION LEPANTO by GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON KATHLEEN O'MORE by GEORGE NUGENT REYNOLDS AN ATHENIAN GARDEN by TRUMBULL STICKNEY THE MAY QUEEN by ALFRED TENNYSON THE MEDITATION OF THE OLD FISHERMAN by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |