"The Vanishing Point"

Random Poetry List XII

The Vanishing Point

There are who, when the bat on wing transverse
   Skims the swart surface of some neighbouring mere,
   Catch that thin cry too fine for common ear:
   Thus the last joy-note of the universe
Is borne to those few listeners who immerse
   Their intellectual hearing in no clear
   Paean, but pierce it with the thin-edged spear
   Of utmost beauty which contains a curse.
Dead on their sense fall marches hymeneal,
   Triumphal odes, hymns, symphonies sonorous;
   They crave one shrill vibration, tense, ideal,
Transcending and surpassing the world's chorus;
   Keen, fine, ethereal, exquisitely real,
   Intangible as star's light quivering o'er us.

John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)

Originally e-mailed on Thursday, February 14, 2002 @ 9:47 PM.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 02/14/05 05:42:28 PM
Categorized as Literary & Random Poetry List.