Sonnets

To Homer

Standing aloof in giant ignorance,
Of thee i hear and of the Cyclades,
As one who sits ashore and longs perchance
To visit dolphin-coral in deep seas.


So thou wast blind!- but then the veil was rent;
For Jove uncurtain'd heaven to let thee live,
And neptune made for thee a spumy tent,
And pan made sing for thee his forest hive


Ay, on the shores of the darkness there is light,
And precipices show untrodden green;
there is a budding morrow in midnight;


there is a triple sight in blindness keen;
such seeing hadst thou, as it once befell,
to dian, queen of earth, and heaven, and hell.