We wandered…off the path…
Through brambles, over stones and rotting trunks,
Beyond the vast, assembled, staring dead…
Land’s end, darkening water,
Dome of sky and a distant sail
(Our fathers’ faces shadowed in the waves),
The fleet, elusive fish, the current strong,
Horizon beckoning…

And came at last to that unshadowed shore
Where the porpoise cavorts in the shallows
And the thaumaturg comes down from the mountains
With his potions and his beads:
Oh! We lived for a while in the clear sight of angels,
And played with the children of days gone by.

Till morning’s bell dissolved the spell
And cast us back upon the world.
‘Twas ever thus: awake, we pine
For fantasies we must resign.