Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SOMNAMBULIST, by MARCUS S. C. RICKARDS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SOMNAMBULIST, by                    
First Line: Celestials must have piloted
Last Line: Find heaven's rapture earth unveiled.
Subject(s): Beauty; Earth; Night; Truth; World; Bedtime


CELESTIALS must have piloted
Yon sleeper risen from her bed;
So true and safe the way she keeps
One scarce can fancy that she sleeps:

Yet treads she with unopened eyes
The labyrinth of Paradise,
Whose Chimes but muffled music yield
To ears untuned, and almost sealed:

Her tones are not the speech of one
Illumed by an unshadowed Sun:
Her robe, for all its stainless white,
Is but the deshabille of Night:

Still Radiance falls on her, methinks,
Like sunny beams thro' prison chinks,
That chariot bright wings which glide
And dance in from a world outside:

The fitful splendour that so streams
Upon her, mingles with her dreams:
Rare visions they, that mortal art
Could never image or impart;

Half, webs of Beauty wove within,
That chastened Fancy loves to spin;
Half, what can dwell in human bounds
Of Treasure that her soul surrounds.

But ah! the best to sound and view
Is but a phantom of the True --
A dreamer's wild enchanted maze --
Gleams faintly flashed thro' circling haze.

Yet must she move in Glory, while
Her lips are wreathed in such a smile:
The glitter of that robe of snow
Is all unborrowed from below.

Perchance she stole it mid high talk
With Seraphs hovering round her walk,
Who, could they err, might well mistake
Her for a sister ere she wake;

Ay, wake! but yet not over soon;
Earth could ill forfeit such a boon.
For lo! her course is common Life,
Its steps, doubt, danger, care, and strife:

The bed she rose from is the dust,
Whence spring all mortals, vile or just,
And whither they return at last,
This restless vain illusion past.

Then, wide awake shall she behold
And hear the Truth now dimly told;
And free from all that Sense entailed
Find Heaven's Rapture Earth unveiled.





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