  On the large highway of the awful air that flows Unbounded between sea and heaven, while twilight screened The sorrowful distances, he moved and had repose; On the huge wind of the Immensity he leaned His steady body in long lapse of flight—and rose Gradual, through broad gyres of ever-climbing rest, Up the clear stair of the eternal sky, and stood Throned on the summit! Slowly, with his widening breast, Widened around him the enormous Solitude, From the gray rim of ocean to the glowing west. Headlands and capes forlorn of the far coast, the land Rolling her barrens toward the south, he, from his throne Upon the gigantic wind, beheld: he hung—he fanned The abyss for mighty joy, to feel beneath him strown Pale pastures of the sea, with heaven on either hand— The world with all her winds and waters, earth and air, Fields, folds, and moving clouds. The awful and adored Arches and endless aisles of vacancy, the fair Void of sheer heights and hollows hailed him as her lord And lover in the highest, to whom all heaven lay bare! Till from that tower of ecstasy, that baffled height, Stooping, he sank; and slowly on the world’s wide way Walked, with great wing on wing, the merciless, proud Might, Hunting the huddled and lone reaches for his prey Down the dim shore—and faded in the crumbling light. Slowly the dusk covered the land. Like a great hymn The sound of moving winds and waters was; the sea Whispered a benediction, and the west grew dim Where evening lifted her clear candles quietly ... |
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