Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CANOPUS; A LEAP FROM THE PAST, by BAYARD TAYLOR Poet's Biography First Line: Above the palms, the peaks of pearly gray Last Line: That makes them purely one! Alternate Author Name(s): Taylor, James Bayard Subject(s): Goddesses & Gods; Mythology; Past; Singing & Singers | ||||||||
ABOVE the palms, the peaks of pearly gray That hang, like dreams, along the slumbering skies, An urn of fire that never burns away, I see Canopus rise. An urn of light, a golden-hearted torch, Voluptuous, drowsy-throbbing mid the stars, As, incense-fed, from Aphrodite's porch Lifted, to beacon Mars. Is it from songs and stories of the Past, With names and scenes that make our planet fair, -- From Babylonian splendors, vague and vast, And flushed Arabian air: -- Or sprung from richer longings of the brain And spices of the blood, this hot desire To lie beneath that mellow lamp again And breathe its languid fire? From tales of nights when watching David saw Its amorous ray on bright Bathsheba's head; Or Charmian stole, the golden gauze to draw Round Cleopatra's bed? Or when white-breasted Paris touched the lone Laconian isle, where stayed his flying oars, And Helen breathed the scent of violets, blown Along the bosky shores? Or Kalidasa's maiden, wandering through The moonlit jungles of the Indian lands, While shamed mimosas from her form withdrew Their thin and trembling hands? For Fancy takes from Passion power to build A brighter fane than bloodless Thought decrees, And loves to see its spacious chambers filled With tropic tapestries. And, past those halls which for itself the mind Builds, permanent as marble, and as cold, In warm surprises of the blood we find The sumptuous dream unfold! There shines the leaf and bursts the blossom sheath On hills deep-mantled in eternal June, Or wave their whispering silver, underneath The rainbow-cinctured moon. Around the pillars of the palm-tree bower The orchids cling, in rose and purple spheres; Shield-broad the lily floats; the aloe flower Foredates its hundred years. Along the lines of coral, white and warm Breaks the white surf; hushed is the glassy air, And only mellower murmurs tell that storm Is raging otherwhere. The mansion gleams with dome and arch Moresque -- Ah, bliss to lie beside the jasper urn Of founts, and through the open ara besque To watch Canopus burn! To sit at feasts, and fluid odors drain Of daintiest nectar that from grape is caught, While faint narcotics cheat the idle brain With phantom shapes of thought; Or, listening to the sweet, seductive voice, No will hath silenced, since the world began, To weigh delight unchallenged, making choice Of earlier joys of man! Permit the dream: our natures twofold are. Sense hath its own ideals, which prepare A rosy background for the soul's white star, Whereon it shines more fair. Not crystal runs, dissolved from mountain snow, The poet's blood; but amber, musk, impart Their scents, and gems their orbed or shivered glow, To feed his tropic heart. While Form and Color undivorced remain In every planet gilded by the sun, His craft shall forge the radiant marriage-chain That makes them purely One! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE APOLLO TRIO by CONRAD AIKEN BAD GIRL SINGING by MARK JARMAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 4 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 5 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 28 by JAMES JOYCE THE SONG OF THE NIGHTINGALE IS LIKE THE SCENT OF SYRINGA by MINA LOY BEDOUIN [LOVE] SONG by BAYARD TAYLOR NATIONAL ODE; INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA by BAYARD TAYLOR |
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