Page 75 - Poetry-Romance

O’erlooking the sea. In the air one discerns
Both saline and floral solutions in turns;
Whilst the thrush (ornith., of the family Merulidae)
Sings with a grateful and soothing garrulity.

Here would we sit, and while you regarded
The bay, with its islets and points interlarded,
The flora, etc., that mark the vicinity,
I was considering mental affinity.

With you by my side, I chanced to detect
In the moon an unusual lunar effect,
Most peaceful, most restful. I showed it to you.
You noted the fact, and observed how the dew,
Like a coverlet woven of clouded glass,
Was tenderly spread and tucked in o’er the grass,
Then approved by a glance from the setting sun
Ere withdrawing his warmth, his day’s work done,
To sink to his rest in the distant sea.
All this you observed, and you showed it to me.
And I further noted, concerning the sun,
When his next day of work was but just begun,
How in kissing the meadow he gently withdrew
This soft, spreading sheet—and I showed it to you.

Why every work upon natural history
Lacks these phenomena did seem a mystery
Till I discovered and proved to be true
One datum astounding unnoted by you;
Viz.: that our careless and unsystematic
Observances, neither dynamic nor static—
Impressions, mere play of an unemployed hour—
Were hidden from two eyes, but patent to four!

‘T was plain as a star in a cloudless night
That we had combined our physical sight;
And then I conceived, with reckless celerity,
A thought that savored, perhaps, of temerity.

What would result if we two combined
Our mental sight in a single mind?
‘T was plain, our powers of realization

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