  AD ASTRAICONQUEROR! what have you seen in the heavens? Star-dust is in your hair. Say, have you woken the sleeping thunder And taken it unaware? Come on the storm as a wild beast crouching, And mocked at it in its lair? Ridden the wind as a riotous charger, Your hand in his mane entwined, As a new unbroken Pegasus, That a master had divined? A boast for a man to bring down from heaven, “I have bridled the wild East wind!” Gazed in the mirror of unshed dew-ponds, Bathed in the rivers of rain? Caught at the meteor’s sparks in passing, And flung them to earth for grain? Dropped in the wake of the scattered handfuls To the morning earth again? How have you raced with the car of Apollo, A trial of strength indeed, He in his golden chariot standing And lashing his golden steed, You with your glimmering wings of silver And unconquerable speed? What of the sirens that dwell in the heavens In a palace of cloud and air? As a lover of nymphs inviolate, Of sirens with rainbow hair, Have you dwelt like a new Odysseus With the sirens of the air? Speak! have you guarded Diana’s uprising From a couch of mist and sheen? Speak! have you watched Diana’s disrobing After her reign as queen? Speak! for your eyes are eloquent With the mysteries they have seen. And your feet, which have trod in unlaboured fields, Are with wingÈd sandals shod, And the hawthorn stick at the touch of your hand Has turned to a wingÈd rod, And your eyes and lips are burnished gold With the kiss of the bright sun-god. IISon of the morning, son of the daybreak, Son of the stars and sky, Son of the clean untrodden places, Son of the air am I. I am the sailor of the heavens, And the Viking of the gale, The cloud-built galleon is my vessel, And the bellying cloud my sail. I am the reaper of the heavens, With the sickle moon in my hand. I am the minstrel of the heavens, With the birds that rise from land. I am the hunter of the heavens, With the night-hounds for my pack, Lord of unbroken solitudes That I am the first to track. Son of the tempest, son of the moonlight, Son of the silver sky, Son of the clean untrodden places, Son of the air am I. |
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