The Lantern

Book 422

PG

The sun's red splendour and the tremulous fires,

And raise him o'er the mountain-tops, those mountains--

O'er which he seemeth then to thee to be,

His glowing self hard by atingeing them

With his own fire--are yet away from us

Scarcely two thousand arrow-shots, indeed

Oft scarce five hundred courses of a dart;

Although between those mountains and the sun

Lie the huge plains of ocean spread beneath

The vasty shores of ether, and intervene

A thousand lands, possessed by many a folk

And generations of wild beasts. Again,

A pool of water of but a finger's depth,

Which lies between the stones along the pave,

Offers a vision downward into earth

As far, as from the earth o'erspread on high

The gulfs of heaven; that thus thou seemest to view

Clouds down below and heavenly bodies plunged

Wondrously in heaven under earth.

Then too, when in the middle of the stream

Sticks fast our dashing horse, and down we gaze

Into the river's rapid waves, some force

Seems then to bear the body of the horse,

Though standing still, reversely from his course,

And swiftly push up-stream. And wheresoe'er