| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | On First Looking into the Manuscript of Endymion | | By Charles Hanson Towne |
| | In Mr. Morgan’s Library
I DARED not dream that this dream had come true: | |
| That I was bending over that yellow page | |
| Lit with his words—our boy, our poet, our sage— | |
| And that I touched the parchment, old yet new, | |
| Whereon his fingers once had been. I grew | 5 |
| Strangely afraid, as if some heritage | |
| Of wonder from a distant, holy age | |
| Had suddenly fallen on me, like soft dew. | |
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| “A thing of beauty is a joy forever….” There | |
| I read his lovely line, what time I dipped | 10 |
| Into that hushed and haunted manuscript | |
| That love and time have made even lovelier. | |
| Oh, I could only dream; yea, dream and weep … | |
| Was it a vision?—Did I wake or sleep? | | | | |
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