Gold

There is a castle on a hill,         So far into the sky,     That birds that from the valley-beds         Up to the turrets fly,     Climbing towards the sun can feel         The clouds go tumbling by.     But always far above the clouds         The sun is shining there,     It shines for ever on those walls;         And the great boughs that bear     Harvests of never fading fruit         Are golden everywhere.     Who journeys to that castled crest         Finds, with his journey done,     All ages and all colours in         Cascades of light that run     Over the broad weirs of the air         For ever from the sun.     Two things are silver: flower of plum         When April yet is cold;     And willowed floods that of the moon         Quiet leases hold.     That castle in the sky alone         Of living things is gold.     Between unfathomable blue         And the bright belts of green,     Midway the plains of heaven and earth,         Rock-borne it stands between     Woods and the sky, a golden world         Where only gold is seen.     Old carvers in the stone have cut         Forests and wraths and herds,     And these are gold: the dials tell         The sun in golden words;     The very jackdaws, from the towers         Wheeling, are golden birds.     The minting of the sun is on         The gravel everywhere,     The yellow walls are fleeces washed         In pools of sunny air,     That coming to that castle place         All men are Jasons there.     Trancelike to stand upon that hill         When the deep summer sings,     Gold-clad, gold-hearted, and gold-voiced,         And sings and sings and sings,     Is as to wait a rising world         In flight of golden wings.     And I have walked with love that way,         And on that golden crest     The sun was happy for my love,         For she is golden-tressed.     Red gold, that of all golden things         The great sun marks for best.     O golden castle of the sky         Hereafter gold can be     Only your image when the sun         Transfigured her for me,     Till she was golden-clouded Jove,         And I her Danae.     Hereafter in the chambered night         When linked love is told,     One thought shall spare to climb that hill         Into the sunbright fold,     For a great summer noon when love         Was gold, and gold, and gold.