| George William (“A. E.”) Russell (1867–1935). Collected Poems by A.E. 1913. |
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| 92. Fantasy |
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| OVER all the dream-built margin, flushed with grey and hoary light, | |
| Glint the bubble planets tossing in the dead black sea of night. | |
| Immemorial face, how many faces look from out thy skies, | |
| Now with ghostly eyes of wonder rimmed around with rainbow dyes: | |
| Now the secrets of the future trail along the silent spheres: | 5 |
| Ah, how often have I followed filled with phantom hopes and fears, | |
| Where my star that rose dream-laden, moving to the mystic crown, | |
| On the yellow moon-rock foundered and my joy and dreams went down. | |
| As a child with hands uplifted peering through the cloudless miles | |
| Bent the Mighty Mother o’er me shining all with eyes and smiles: | 10 |
| “Come up hither, child, my darling”: waving to the habitations, | |
| Thrones, and starry kings around her, dark embattled planet nations. | |
| There the mighty rose in greeting, as their child from exile turning | |
| Smiled upon the awful faces o’er the throne supernal burning. | |
| As with sudden sweetness melting, shone the eyes, the hearts of home, | 15 |
| Changed the vision, and the Mother vanished in the vasty dome. | |
| So from marvel unto marvel turned the face I gazed upon, | |
| Till its fading majesty grew tender as a child at dawn, | |
| And the heaven of heavens departed and the visions passed away | |
| With the seraph of the darkness martyred in the fires of day. | 20 |
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