Ecstasy

I saw a frieze on whitest marble drawn     Of boys who sought for shells along the shore,     Their white feet shedding pallor in the sea,     The shallow sea, the spring-time sea of green     That faintly creamed against the cold, smooth pebbles.     The air was thin, their limbs were delicate,     The wind had graven their small eager hands     To feel the forests and the dark nights of Asia     Behind the purple bloom of the horizon,     Where sails would float and slowly melt away.     Their naked, pure, and grave, unbroken silence     Filled the soft air as gleaming, limpid water     Fills a spring sky those days when rain is lying     In shattered bright pools on the wind-dried roads,     And their sweet bodies were wind-purified.     One held a shell unto his shell-like ear     And there was music carven in his face,     His eyes half-closed, his lips just breaking open     To catch the lulling, mazy, coralline roar     Of numberless caverns filled with singing seas.     And all of them were hearkening as to singing     Of far-off voices thin and delicate,     Voices too fine for any mortal wind     To blow into the whorls of mortal ears -     And yet those sounds flowed from their grave, sweet faces.     And as I looked I heard that delicate music,     And I became as grave, as calm, as still     As those carved boys. I stood upon that shore,     I felt the cool sea dream around my feet,     My eyes were staring at the far horizon:     And the wind came and purified my limbs,     And the stars came and set within my eyes,     And snowy clouds rested upon my shoulders,     And the blue sky shimmered deep within me,     And I sang like a carven pipe of music.