James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
January 8Verlaine
By Bliss Carman (18611929)
A
With quest too furious for the grail he would have won,
He flung himself at the eternal sky, as one
Wrenching his chains but impotent to burst the bond.
What pools of innocence, what crystal benison!
As through a riven mist that glowers in the sun,
A stretch of God’s blue calm glassed in a virgin pond.
And aisles with incense numb and gardens mad with rose,
Monastic cells and dreams of dim brocaded lawns,
Surely upon his soul has kissed the same repose
In some fair heaven the Christ has set apart for Fauns.