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From “University Sketches”
I WALKED among the gray-walled buildings. | |
| The city girdles them, | |
| And distant clamors | |
| Break on the timeless towers as the sea, | |
| In March, | 5 |
| Whirls its long lines of sound against the coast. | |
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| Among them the professors walked— | |
| Stooping men with glasses | |
| And queerly eager feet. | |
| Some wore Van Dyke beards, | 10 |
| And on some the hair was silvered. | |
| They talked very rapidly and all were laden | |
| With many books. | |
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| From hall to solemn hall the hurrying students | |
| Streamed in black lines— | 15 |
| Youths and maidens chatting endlessly, | |
| Worn women with drawn mouths, | |
| And dissatisfied men. | |
| They were seeking something, | |
| Seeking, seeking, | 20 |
| Seeking they knew not what. | |
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| I too passed with them into a building. | |
| It was crowded with students, | |
| And they seemed in the dingy light of the hall | |
| Like spectres of dead youth. | 25 |
| The walls were drab, | |
| The bulletin boards by the offices | |
| And the ugly chandeliers | |
| Looked dusty in the light; | |
| And I wondered what light did in this place, | 30 |
| Struggling through the narrow panes— | |
| The lord of life, | |
| The eternal sun. | |
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| Suddenly in the crowded hall | |
| I saw her walking toward me, | 35 |
| The matchless, the miraculous, | |
| The divine Aphrodite, | |
| And around her the heedless students swarmed, | |
| And saw her not. | |
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| Ah, Aphrodite! | 40 |
| Her body in the crowded way like a pillar of light | |
| Shone naked and beautiful, | |
| The silver limbs, the lustrous bosom; | |
| Her face was terrible, | |
| Sweet and swift as lightning launched at midnight; | 45 |
| One arm was raised | |
| And from her hand, her divine hand, | |
| She scattered roses, | |
| Red roses, | |
| Crisp flakes of kindling fire. | 50 |
| A murmur of music floated around her | |
| Like a sunset-colored cloud; | |
| Her feet, moving, echoed strangely in my heart— | |
| Eternal singing. | |
| The centuries were singing; | 55 |
| The golden-hearted singers of the world | |
| Were singing with them | |
| Unutterable songs. | |
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| Thou dead, thou deathless goddess, | |
| Sprung of the wind and the wave and the clean, sweet foam! | 60 |
| The wild songs of the moving feet | |
| Choked into silence … | |
| Ah, Aphrodite! | |
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| The students swarmed again about me, | |
| Women with drawn mouths, | 65 |
| Dissatisfied men, | |
| Seeking something, seeking, | |
| Seeking they knew not what. | |
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