When the sea is still as glass,
And the whispering breezes pass
On messages from zone to zone, or waft from pole
to pole,
A dewdrop of Savannah sweet-
A particle of Arab heat,
Commingling Nature’s essences in one harmonious
whole.
When the bright, magnetic stars
Seem leaning from their cars,
As drawn by some kind influence from clear
familiar skies;
And thoughts, as dreams misprized,
Great truths, unrecognised!
Strike sudden chords from out the world’s eternal
harmonies.
When the sun sets in the sea,
Like Time in Eternity;
And space beyond horizon seems stretching
without end:
Then come to an arbour still,
Halfway up a western hill,
That I destined for such an hour, and planted
for such a friend,
A cedar from Assyria-
A willow from St. Helena-
A vine from classic Tusculum their branches
intertwine;
A lily-rose from Mexico,
The vegetable southern snow!
Stand side by side-exotic bride!-with Norway’s
Scaldic pine.
The seat is formed of precious stone,
A fragment from old Babylon:
From Theseus’ wall-Carthago’s fall-perchance
the Roman’s seat!
From Theban sphinx’s heartless breast-
From Aztec ruin of the west;
And a cornice from the capitol is spread beneath
our feet.
And thence you may behold
A map of earth unrolled,
With the steamers on the ocean, and the railways
on the land;
And hear the city’s hum
Up the hillside deadened come,
Like the last ebb of the waters on a far-receding
strand.
Oh! there, methinks, ’twere sweet
To sit in converse meet,
With palpable progression before our vision
spread;
And trace the mighty plan
Of the destinies of man,
Measuring the living by the stature of the dead.
(Ernest Jones)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, World Poems, Mind Poems, Friendship Poems, Snow Poems, Eternity Poems, Cities Poems, Cars Poems, Matter PoemsBased on Keywords: commingling, assyria, helena, savannah, aztec, deadened, theseus, railways, progression, intertwine, unrecognised