DAY by day the soul of things Up its countless ladders springs, Fleeting back to whence it came, -- Inviolate, etherial flame! I have pierced its changing shapes, Coils and turnings, deft escapes! Up yon swaying shaft it stole, Of the scarlet gladiole. First, the lowest bud it caught, And with fire its chalice fraught; Then, with aspiration new, To the bloom above withdrew. Every flower, thus bereft, Like a quenched brand was left, -- Quickly into ashes fell When the Genius fled its cell! On the morrow it will rest In the topmost blossom-crest; Waving thence its light adieus, Some unseen way it pursues. Airy pyramid of grass At its motion yields a pass. Through the wind-loved wheat it flows, Up the tufted sedge-flower goes, Scales the foxglove's leaning spire, Fans the wild lobelia's fire, Where beside the pool it flashes; And the slender vervain's lashes, By the climbing spirit swayed, All their purple length unbraid. Thus the soul of blooming things Up its countless ladders springs. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG FIRST BY A SHEPHERD by WILLIAM BLAKE ALL IS VANITY, SAITH THE PREACHER' by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE NETHERLANDS by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE TYRANNICK [TYRANNIC] LOVE: EPILOGUE by JOHN DRYDEN THE MOWER AGAINST GARDENS by ANDREW MARVELL ON GROWING OLD by JOHN MASEFIELD |