Song

Satin sails in a crimson dawnOver the silky silver sea;Purple veils of the dark withdrawn;Heavens of pearl and porphyry;Purple and white in the morning lightOver the water the town we knew,In tiny state, like a willow-plate,Shone, and behind it the hills were blue.

There, we remembered, the shadows passAll day long like dreams in the night;There, in the meadows of dim blue grass,Crimson daisies are ringed with white.There the roses flutter their petals,Over the meadows they take their flight,There the moth that sleepily settlesTurns to a flower in the warm soft light.

There when the sunset colours the streetsEveryone buys at wonderful stallsToys and chocolates, guns and sweets,Ivory pistols, and Persian shawls:Everyone's pockets are crammed with gold;Nobody's heart is worn with care,Nobody ever grows tired and old,And nobody calls you "Baby" there.

There with a hat like a round white dishUpside down on each pig-tailed head,Jugglers offer you snakes and fish,Dreams and dragons and gingerbread;Beautiful books with marvellous pictures,Painted pirates and streaming gore,And everyone reads, without any strictures,Tales he remembers for evermore.

There when the dim blue daylight lingersListening, and the West grows holy,Singers crouch with their long white fingersFloating over the zithern slowly:Paper lamps with a peachy bloomBurn above on the dim blue bough,While the zitherns gild the gloomWith curious music! I hear it now!

Now: and at that mighty wordHolding out his magic fan,Through the waving flowers appeared,Suddenly, the tall thin man:And we saw the crumpled dwarfTrying to hide behind the tree,But his knotted scarlet scarfMade him very plain to see.

Like a soft and smoky cloudPassed the webby net away;While its owner squealing loudDown behind the pear-tree lay;For the tall thin man came near,And his words were dark and gruff,And he swung the dwarf in the airBy his long and scraggy scruff.

There he kickled whimpering.But our rescuer touched the box,Open with a sudden springClashed the four-and-twenty locks;Then he crammed the dwarf inside,And the locks all clattered tight:Four-and-twenty times he triedWhether they were fastened right.

Ah, he led us on our road,Showed us Wonder-Wander town;Then he fled: behind him flowedOnce again the rose-pink gown:Down the long deserted street,All the windows winked like eyes,And our little trotting feetEchoed to the starry skies.

Low and long for evermoreWhere the Wonder-Wander seaWhispers to the wistful shorePurple songs of mystery,Down the shadowy quay we came--Though it hides behind the hillYou will find it just the sameAnd the seamen singing still.

There we chose a ship of pearl,And her milky silken sailSeemed by magic to unfurl,Puffed before a fairy gale;Shimmering o'er the purple deep,Out across the silvery bar,Softly as the wings of sleepSailed we towards the morning star.

Over us the skies were dark,Yet we never needed light;Softly shone our tiny barkGliding through the solemn night;Softly bright our moony gleam,Glimmered o'er the glistening waves,Like a cold sea-maiden's dreamGlobed in twilit ocean caves.

So all night our shallop passedMany a haunt of old desire,Blurs of savage blossom massedRed above a pirate-fire;Huts that gloomed and glanced amongFruitage dipping in the blue;Songs the sirens never sung,Shores Ulysses never knew.

All our fairy rigging shoneRichly as a rainbow seenWhere the moonlight floats uponGossamers of gold and green:All the tiny spars were bright;Beaten gold the bowsprit was;But our pilot was the night,And our chart a looking-glass.