I. FOR thirty years Vishtaspa reigned alone, No King above him in the empty skies, No Lord of all earth's fallen sovereignties To mock the mighty tedium of his throne. To him the secrets of the stars were known Who was above all sages great and wise; Yet as the years dragged on without surprise He wearied of this world that was his own. Earth is too narrow for the dreaming Soul. Ay, tho' she hold it all from pole to pole Her least desire is wider than the whole. Therefore who knows the limit of his power Disdains the trivial baubles of an hour, And plunges where the seas of silence roll. II. "Life is a dream," Vishtaspa said, "wherein The dreamer lives alone; the rest is vain... My dream shall end, for I would sleep again; Wherefore farewell, glitter and glare and din!" He went his palace-terraces to win: "Farewell! I cast me to the quiet plain." He would have leapt; but lo! a voice spake plain: "Mortal! thy Master saith: thou shalt not sin." And at his side, unguess'd, Zoroaster trod... O sudden peace of heart, O deep delight Of souls outgrown religion's earlier rite, Yet spent and thirsting for the springs of God, When lo! at last the Prophet deigns appear... Vishtaspa reign'd in rapture many a year. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TOMORROW by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD A GARDEN SONG by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON PENMAEN POOL by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS SONGS WITH PRELUDES: REGRET by JEAN INGELOW BEN JONSON ENTERTAINS A MAN FROM STRATFORD by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON AUBADE [OR, A MORNING SONG FOR IMOGEN], FR. CYMBELINE by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE |