Two Visions
The curtains of the Night were folded
Over suspended sense;
So that the things I saw were moulded
I know not how nor whence.
Straight I beheld a marble city,
Built upon wayward slopes,
Along whose paths, as if for pity,
Ran tight-drawn golden ropes.
Withal, of many who ascended,
No one appeared to use
This help, allowed in days since mended,
When folks had frailer thews.
The men, all animal in vigour,
Strode stalwart and erect;
But on their brows, in placid rigour,
Watched sovereign Intellect.
Women brave-limbed, sound-lunged, full-breasted,
Walked at a rhythmic pace;
Yet not for that the less invested
With every female grace.
Unveiled and wholly unattended,
Strolled maidens to and fro:
Youths looked respect, but never bended
Obsequiously low.
And each with other, sans condition,
Held parley brief or long,
Without provoking rash suspicion
Of marriage or of wrong.
Distinction none of wooed or winning,
And no one made remark,
Till came they where the old were spinning,
As it was growing dark,
And saying-hushed untimely laughter-
`Henceforward we are one,'
Went homewards. Nor could ever after
Such Sanction be undone.
All were well clad, but none were better,
And gems beheld I none,
Save where there hung a jewelled fetter,
Symbolic, in the sun.
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poem by Alfred Austin
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