| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Isles |
| | | Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts (1860–1943) |
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| FAITHFUL reports of them have reached me oft! | |
| Many their embassage to mortal court, | |
| By golden pomp, and breathless-heard consort | |
| Of music soft,— | |
| By fragrances accredited, and dreams. | 5 |
| Many their speeding heralds, whose light feet | |
| Make pause at wayside brooks, and fords of streams, | |
| Leaving transfigured by an effluence fleet | |
| Those wayfarers they meet. | |
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| No wind from out the solemn wells of night | 10 |
| But hath its burden of strange messages, | |
| Tormenting for interpreter; nor less | |
| The wizard light | |
| That steals from noon-stilled waters, woven in shade, | |
| Beckons somewhither, with cool fingers slim. | 15 |
| No dawn but hath some subtle word conveyed | |
| In rose ineffable at sunrise rim, | |
| Or charactery dim. | |
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| One moment throbs the hearing, yearns the sight. | |
| But though not far, yet strangely hid, the way, | 20 |
| And our sense slow; nor long for us delay | |
| The guides their flight! | |
| The breath goes by; the word, the light, elude; | |
| And we stay wondering. But there comes an hour | |
| Of fitness perfect and unfettered mood, | 25 |
| When splits her husk the finer sense with power, | |
| And—yon their palm-trees tower! | |
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| Here Homer came, and Milton came, though blind. | |
| Omar’s deep doubts still found them nigh and nigher, | |
| And learned them fashioned to the heart’s desire. | 30 |
| The supreme mind | |
| Of Shakespeare took their sovereignty, and smiled. | |
| Those passionate Israelitish lips that poured | |
| The Song of Songs attained them; and the wild | |
| Child-heart of Shelley, here from strife restored, | 35 |
| Remembers not life’s sword. | |
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