An Ode to Antares
At dusk, when lowlands where dark waters glideRobe in gray mist, and through the greening hillsThe hoot-owl calls his mate, and whippoorwillsClamor from every copse and orchard-side,I watched the red star rising in the East,And while his fellows of the flaming signFrom prisoning daylight more and more released,Lift their pale lamps, and, climbing higher, higher,Out of their locks the waters of the LineShaking in clouds of phosphorescent fire,Rose in the splendor of their curving flight,Their dolphin leap across the austral night,From windows southward opening on the seaWhat eyes, I wondered, might be watching, too,Orbed in some blossom-laden balcony.Where, from the garden to the rail above,As though a lover’s greeting to his loveShould borrow body and form and hueAnd tower in torrents of floral flame,The crimson bougainvillea grew,What starlit brow uplifted to the sameMajestic regress of the summering sky,What ultimate thing—hushed, holy, throned as highAbove the currents that tarnish and profaneAs silver summits are whose pure reposeNo curious eyes discloseNor any footfalls stain,But round their beauty on azure eveningsOnly the oreads go on gauzy wings,Only the oreads troop with dance and songAnd airy beings in rainbow mists who throngOut of those wonderful worlds that lie afarBetwixt the outmost cloud and the nearest star.
Like the moon, sanguine in the orient nightShines the red flower in her beautiful hair.Her breasts are distant islands of delightUpon a sea where all is soft and fair.Those robes that make a silken sheathFor each lithe attitude that flows beneath,Shrouding in scented folds sweet warmths and tumid flowers,Call them far clouds that half emergeBeyond a sunset ocean’s utmost verge,Hiding in purple shade and downpour of soft showersEnchanted isles by mortal foot untrod,And there in humid dells resplendent orchids nod;There always from serene horizons blowSoul-easing gales and there all spice-trees growThat Phoenix robbed to line his fragrant nestEach hundred years in Araby the Blest.
Star of the South that now through orient mistAt nightfall off Tampico or BelizeGreetest the sailor rising from those seasWhere first in me, a fond romanticist,The tropic sunset’s bloom on cloudy pilesCast out industrious cares with dreams of fabulous isles—Thou lamp of the swart lover to his tryst,O’er planted acres at the jungle’s rimReeking with orange-flower and tuberose,Dear to his eyes thy ruddy splendor glowsAmong the palms where beauty waits for him;Bliss too thou bringst to our greening North,Red scintillant through cherry-blossom rifts,Herald of summer-heat, and all the giftsAnd all the joys a summer can bring forth—
Be thou my star, for I have made my aimTo follow loveliness till autumn-strownSunder the sinews of this flower-like frameAs rose-leaves sunder when the bud is blown.Ay, sooner spirit and sense disintegrateThan reconcilement to a common fateStrip the enchantment from a world so dressedIn hues of high romance. I cannot restWhile aught of beauty in any path untrodSwells into bloom and spreads sweet charms abroadUnworshipped of my love. I cannot seeIn Life’s profusion and passionate brevityHow hearts enamored of life can strain too muchIn one long tension to hear, to see, to touch.Now on each rustling night-wind from the SouthFar music calls; beyond the harbor mouthEach outbound argosy with sail unfurledMay point the path through this fortuitous worldThat holds the heart from its desire. Away!Where tinted coast-towns gleam at close of day,Where squares are sweet with bells, or shores thick setWith bloom and bower, with mosque and minaret.Blue peaks loom up beyond the coast-plains here,White roads wind up the dales and disappear,By silvery waters in the plains afarGlimmers the inland city like a star,With gilded gates and sunny spires ablazeAnd burnished domes half-seen through luminous haze,Lo, with what opportunity Earth teems!How like a fair its ample beauty seems!Fluttering with flags its proud pavilions rise:What bright bazaars, what marvelous merchandise,Down seething alleys what melodious din,What clamor importuning from every booth!At Earth’s great market where Joy is trafficked inBuy while thy purse yet swells with golden Youth!