I DREAMED the gates of Heaven were opened wide, And whosoever desired therein might pass; And, night and day, there came a weary mass Of spirits, nor was any soul denied: The harlot and philosopher, side by side, The glutton and the faster, men of rhyme Whose hearts held not a hint of place or time, And clods, gorilla-mawed and evil-eyed. Sorrow seemed ended for a season, and then Some trace of grief grew audible in the light That washed like golden waves along the sky. It was the wailing of the souls of men Who hungered for the vanished gloom of night, And thirsted, at Truth's fountain, for a lie. |