Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

INVISIBLE KINGS by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL

First Line: I WATCHED ALL DAY THE SWAY OF INVISIBLE KINGS
Last Line: AS WITH WIND IN THE WATERS, OR SCEPTRE OF LIGHT ON THE HILL.
Subject(s): COURTS & COURTIERS;
I WATCHED all day the sway of invisible kings,
The fingers of Air that fondled the murmuring tide,
And shaped it to jewels of spray and delicate things,
And it yielded to Air as yields to her lover a bride.

I saw where the sceptre of Light was laid on our star,
How colour in torrents foamed from the peak up on high,
And flooded the glades, and ran through the forests afar,
And the lanes were silver and golden as dawn passed by.

In the watches of night I felt a mightier King,
In the silence that lies below life, invisible, still.
But my thoughts that were dark were made gay as birds on the wing,
As with Wind in the waters, or sceptre of Light on the hill.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net