More "News of the Universe"

Here's another poem from the book;


From "Introductory Lines"

How shall I name you, immortal, mild, proud shadow?
I only know that all we know comes from you,
And that you come from Eden on flying feet
is Eden far away, or do you hide
From human thought, as hares and mice and coneys
That run before the reaping-hook and lie
In the last ridge of the barley? Do our woods
And winds and ponds cover more quiet woods,
More shining winds, more star-glimmmering ponds?
Is Eden out of time and out of space?
And do you gather about us when pale light
Shining on water and fallen among leaves,
And winds blowing from flowers, and whirr of feathers
And the green quiet, have uplifted the heart?

I have made this poem for you, that men may read it
Before they read of Gorgael and Dectora,
As men in the old times, before the harps began,
Poured out wine for the high invisible ones.

W.B. Keats /September 1900
from the Shadowy Waters