The Poetry Corner

Second Sight

By Madison Julius Cawein

They lean their faces to me through Green windows of the woods; Their white throats sweet with honey-dew Beneath low leafy hoods - No dream they dream but hath been true Here in the solitudes. Star trillium, in the underbrush, In whom Spring bares her face; Sun eglantine, that breathes the blush Of Summer's quiet grace; Moon mallow, in whom lives the hush Of Autumn's tragic pace. For one hath heard the dryad's sighs Behind the covering bark; And one hath felt the satyr's eyes Gleam in the bosky dark; And one hath seen the naiad rise In waters all a-spark. I bend my soul unto them, stilled In worship man hath lost; The old-world myths that science killed Are living things almost To me through these whose forms are filled With Beauty's pagan ghost. And through new eyes I seem to see The world these live within, - A shuttered world of mystery, Where unreal forms begin The real of ideality That has no unreal kin.