I saw a figure standing in the mist

Dim and alone upon a column's height

Which fell in marble precipice of white

Down to the sea. Sudden the clean sun kissed

His arms wide-stretching to the finger-tips,

And showed his supple body glistening

Clear in the naked heaven, and the ring

Of a gay laugh broke eager from his lips;

So would I stand upon the dizzy ledge

When I have lived, shake back my tumbled hair,

Deliberately toe the empty edge,

Laugh out my last defiance to the air,

Then raise my arms, and, drinking one deep breath,

Eye-open plunge into the sea of Death.