After a long day of work in my hot-houses
Sleep was sweet, but if you sleep on your left side
Your dreams may be abruptly ended.
I was among my flowers where some one
Seemed to be raising them on trial,
As if after-while to be transplanted
To a larger garden of freer air.
And I was disembodied vision
Amid a light, as it were the sun
Had floated in and touched the roof of glass
Like a toy balloon and softly bursted,
And etherealized in golden air.
And all was silence, except the splendor
Was immanent with thought as clear
As a speaking voice, and I, as thought,
Could hear a Presence think as he walked
Between the boxes pinching off leaves,
Looking for bugs and noting values,
With an eye that saw it all: —
“Homer, oh yes! Pericles, good.
Caesar Borgia, what shall be done with it?
Dante, too much manure, perhaps.
Napoleon, leave him awhile as yet.
Shelley, more soil. Shakespeare, needs spraying –”
Clouds, eh! —
(Edgar Lee Masters)
More Poetry from Edgar Lee Masters:
Edgar Lee Masters Poems based on Topics: Mind, Thought & Thinking, Light, Work & Career, Sleep, Dreams, Silence, Speaking- Epilogue (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- The Spooniad (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- Samson And Delilah (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- The Temple (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- Silence (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
- America (Edgar Lee Masters Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Light Poems, Mind Poems, Dreams Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Sleep Poems, Work & Career Poems, Silence Poems, Speaking PoemsBased on Keywords: dante, napoleon, shelley, abruptly, pinching, freer, transplanted, bugs, manure, noting, disembodied