Amphibian
1.
The fancy I had to-day,Fancy which turned a fear!I swam far out in the bay,Since waves laughed warm and clear.
2.
I lay and looked at the sun,The noon-sun looked at me:Between us two, no oneLive creature, that I could see.
3.
Yes! There came floating byMe, who lay floating too,Such a strange butterfly!Creature as dear as new:
4.
Because the membraned wingsSo wonderful, so wide,So sun-suffused, were thingsLike soul and naught beside.
5.
A handbreadth over head!All of the sea my own,It owned the sky instead;Both of us were alone.
6.
I never shall join its flight,For naught buoys flesh in air.If it touch the sea—goodnight!Death sure and swift waits there.
7.
Can the insect feel the betterFor watching the uncouth playOf limbs that slip the fetter,Pretend as they were not clay?
8.
Undoubtedly I rejoiceThat the air comports so wellWith a creature which had the choiceOf the land once. Who can tell?
9.
What if a certain soulWhich early slipped its sheath,And has for its home the wholeOf heaven, thus look beneath,
10.
Thus watch one who, in the world,Both lives and likes life’s way,Nor wishes the wings unfurledThat sleep in the worm, they say?
11.
But sometimes when the weatherIs blue, and warm waves temptTo free one’s self of tether,And try a life exempt
12.
From worldly noise and dust,In the sphere which overbrimsWith passion and thought,—why, justUnable to fly, one swims!
13.
By passion and thought upborne,One smiles to one’s self—“They fareScarce better, they need not scornOur sea, who live in the air!”
14.
Emancipate through passionAnd thought, with sea for sky,We substitute, in a fashion,For heaven—poetry:
—St. 14. for: instead of.
15.
Which sea, to all intent,Gives flesh such noon-disportAs a finer elementAffords the spirit-sort.
16.
Whatever they are, we seem:Imagine the thing they know;All deeds they do, we dream;Can heaven be else but so?
17.
And meantime, yonder streakMeets the horizon’s verge;That is the land, to seekIf we tire or dread the surge:
—St. 17. We can return from the sea of passion and thought,that is, poetry, or a deep spiritual state, to the solidland again, of material fact.
18.
Land the solid and safe—To welcome again (confess!)When, high and dry, we chafeThe body, and don the dress.
—St. 18. Man, in his earth life, cannot always be “highcontemplative”, and indulge in “brave translunary things”;he must welcome again, it must be confessed, “land the solidand safe”. “Other heights in other lives, God willing”(‘One Word More’).
19.
Does she look, pity, wonderAt one who mimics flight,Swims—heaven above, sea under,Yet always earth in sight?
—St. 19. does she: the “certain soul” in 9th St., “whichearly slipped its sheath”.