Into which of the mind's moulds Will vision flow, The divine formulation grow? Once a woman perceived a holy head Dropping its shining blood Like fish-scales, or like rain-drops from the eaves. Elsewhere it is a lotus-flower Opening from the self-encentred Buddha Composed for ever like a still dancer, And once in Lambeth a hidden grain of sand Held all the world that vision can command, The great eternity within a poet's mind. Grandiose archaic faces, Contours of former souls' experience Stand between my vision and what they saw, Therefore come as a bird within the mind, Or as a single leaf upon a tree of leaves Suddenly made shining by the sun, Or break like day upon a simple stone Or in a dazzle of sunlight upon water, Come as a jewelled moth, a budding flower Come in a form I shall not too much fear. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MATER IN EXTREMIS by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL by JOHN DRYDEN A LONDON PLANE-TREE by AMY LEVY THE SPINNER by CLARA DOTY BATES SOLILOQUY; NOVEMBER 11, 1928 by N. R. A. BECKER MID-OCEAN by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |