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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Princes' Qust - Part the Fourth</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">That night he dreamed that over him there stole<br>A change miraculous, whereby his soul<br>Was parted from his body for a space,<br>And through a labyrinth of secret ways<br>Entered the world where dead men's ghosts abide<br>To seek the Seer who yestermorn had died.<br>And there in very truth he found the Seer,<br>Who gazing on him said, 'What would'st thou here,<br>O royal-born, who visitest the coasts<br>Of darkness, and the dwellings of the ghosts?'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then said the Prince, 'I fain would know to find<br>The land as yet untrod of mortal-kind<br>Which I beheld by gracious leave of Sleep.'<br>To whom the Spirit: 'O Prince, the seas are deep<br>And very wide betwixt thee and that land,<br>And who shall say how many days do stand,<br>As dim-seen armed hosts between thy bliss<br>And thee?-Moreover, in the world there is<br>A certain Emerald Stone which some do call<br>The Emerald of the Virtues Mystical;<br>(Though what those Virtues Mystical may be<br>None living knows) and since, O youth, to me<br>Thou dost apply for counsel, be it known<br>Except thou have this wondrous emerald stone,<br>Go seek through all the world, thou shalt not find<br>The land thou wouldst: but like the houseless wind<br>That roams the world to seek a resting-place,<br>Thou through inhospitable time and space<br>Shalt roam, till time and space deliver thee,<br>To spaceless, timeless, mute eternity.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'For in a certain land there once did dwell<br>(How long ago it needs not I should tell)<br>At the king's court a great astrologer,<br>Ev'n such as erst was I, but mightier<br>And far excelling; and it came to pass<br>That he fell sick; and very old he was;<br>And knowing that his end was nigh, he said<br>To him that sat in sorrow by his bed,<br>'O master well-beloved and matchless king,<br>Take thou and keep this lowly offering<br>In memory of thy servant;' whereupon<br>The king perceived it was a gem that shone<br>Like the sea's heart: and on one side of it<br>This legend in an unknown tongue was writ-</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Who holdeth Me may go where none hath fared<br>Before, and none shall follow afterward.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So the king took the bright green stone betwixt<br>His fingers, and upon the legend fixed<br>His eyes, and said unto the dying Seer,<br>'Now who shall render this dark scripture clear<br>That I may know the meaning of the gift?'<br>And the mage oped his mouth and strove to lift<br>His voice, but could not, for the wishèd word<br>Clave to his rattling throat, that no man heard:<br>Whereby the soul, departing, bore away<br>From all men living, even to this day,<br>The secret. And the jewel hath passed down<br>Seven times from sire to son, and in the crown<br>It shineth of that country's kings, being called<br>Ev'n to this day the mystic emerald;<br>But no man liveth in the world, of wit<br>To read the writing that is on it writ.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'O Master,' said the Prince, 'and wilt not thou<br>Instruct me where to find the king who now<br>Weareth the jewel in his diadem?'<br>To whom the Spirit, 'O youth, and if the gem<br>Be worth the finding, is't not also worth<br>The little pain of seeking through the earth?-<br>Yet so thou may'st not wander witlessly,<br>Look thou forget not this I tell to thee:<br>When in thy journeyings thou shalt dream once more<br>The fateful dream thou haddest heretofore,<br>That filled thy veins with longing as with wine,<br>Till all thy being brimm'd over-by that sign<br>Thou mayest know thyself at last to be<br>Within the borders of his empery<br>Who hath the mystic emerald stone, whose gleam<br>Shall light thee to the country of thy dream.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'But,' said the Prince, 'When all the world's highways<br>My feet have trod, till after length of days<br>I reach the land where lies the wondrous stone,<br>How shall I make so rare a, thing mine own?<br>For had I riches more than could be told,<br>What king would sell his jewels for my gold?'<br>And on this wise the answer of the Seer<br>Fell in the hollow of his dreaming ear:<br>'Behold this Iron Chain,-of power it is<br>To heal all manner of mortal maladies<br>In him that wears it round his neck but once,<br>Between the sun's downgoing and the sun's<br>Uprising: take it thou, and hold it fast<br>Until by seeking long thou find at last<br>The king that hath the mystic emerald stone:<br>And having found him, thou shalt e'en make known<br>The virtues lodged within this charmed chain:<br>Which when the king doth hear he will be fain<br>To have possession of so strange a thing;<br>And thou shalt make a bargain with the king<br>To give the Iron Chain in bartery<br>For that mysterious jewel whereof he<br>Knows not the secret worth. And when at last<br>The emerald stone in thy own hands thou hast,<br>Itself shall guide thee whither thou would'st go-<br>Ev'n to the land revealed of sleep, where no<br>Grief comes to mar their music, neither sound<br>Of sighing, while the golden years go round.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">So spake the Spirit unto him that dreamed,<br>And suddenly that world of shadow seemed<br>More shadowy; and all things began to blend<br>Together: and the dream was at an end.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=539834" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then slept the Prince a deep sweet sleep that knew<br>Nor dream nor vision; till the dawnlight grew<br>Up, and his soul a sudden halt did make<br>About the confines dim of sleep and wake,<br>Where wandering lights and wildered shadows meet.<br>But presently uprising to his feet<br>From tarriance in that frontier-region dim,<br>Exceeding wonderment laid hold on him;<br>For even while from off his bed he rose,<br>He heard a clinking as of metal, close<br>Thereby, and could in no-wise understand:<br>And lo the Iron Chain was in his hand!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=William+Watson">William Watson</a></strong></div>