In a rapt, dreamy quietude I sit Leisurely puffing clouds from my cigar, And down the sunbeams, with a noiseless tread, A throng of elves come tripping from afar. Half consciously the fairies I invoke To paint me pictures in the tinted smoke. ... How life is like this vapour! Calm-eyed Hope In fairy guise paints it with pictures rare, And while we gaze and stretch out eager hands, Behold the phantoms vanish in the air! Urged by a fate no pleading can revoke, We grow old watching pictures in the smoke. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPIGRAM: HERO AND LEANDER by JOHN DONNE ROSE AYLMER by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR THE CATARACT OF LODORE by ROBERT SOUTHEY COLIN CLOUTS COME HOME AGAIN by EDMUND SPENSER SUMTER [APRIL 12, 1861] by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN |