Angels and fairies, giants, wolves and he
Were that world's only guests.

Elsewhere was home and mother, his warm bed:--
Now, only God alone
Could, armed with all His power and wisdom, make
Earths richer than his own.

O Man!--thy dreams, thy passions, hopes, desires!--
He in his pity keep
A homely bed where love may lull a child's
Fond Universe asleep!




GLORIA MUNDI


Upon a bank, easeless with knobs of gold,
Beneath a canopy of noonday smoke,
I saw a measureless Beast, morose and bold,
With eyes like one from filthy dreams awoke,
Who stares upon the daylight in despair
For very terror of the nothing there.

This beast in one flat hand clutched vulture-wise
A glittering image of itself in jet,
And with the other groped about its eyes
To drive away the dreams that pestered it;