The Moon-Path

The full, clear moon uprose and spread     Her cold, pale splendor o'er the sea;     A light-strewn path that seemed to lead     Outward into eternity.     Between the darkness and the gleam     An old-world spell encompassed me:     Methought that in a godlike dream     I trod upon the sea.     And lo! upon that glimmering road,     In shining companies unfurled,     The trains of many a primal god,     The monsters of the elder world;     Strange creatures that, with silver wings,     Scarce touched the ocean's thronging floor,     The phantoms of old tales, and things     Whose shapes are known no more.     Giants and demi-gods who once     Were dwellers of the earth and sea,     And they who from Deucalion's stones,     Rose men without an infancy;     Beings on whose majestic lids     Time's solemn secrets seemed to dwell,     Tritons and pale-limbed Nereids,     And forms of heaven and hell.     Some who were heroes long of yore,     When the great world was hale and young;     And some whose marble lips yet pour     The murmur of an antique tongue;     Sad queens, whose names are like soft moans,     Whose griefs were written up in gold;     And some who on their silver thrones     Were goddesses of old.     As if I had been dead indeed,     And come into some after-land,     I saw them pass me, and take heed,     And touch me with each mighty hand;     And evermore a murmurous stream,     So beautiful they seemed to me,     Not less than in a godlike dream     I trod the shining sea.