I have tried several times to use this poem for Ars Magica or Magonomia, and I have failed each time. I’m sending it out into the universe so that it returns as something new and strange. Thanks to the Librivox production team. You’ll get a short episode every day this week to celebrate the festive season. Well in my family it’s a festive season…
[Added later – I wrote this before moving the Hallowe’en Week out of the way of the Bestiary Kickstarter.]
***
O sweet illusions of Song,
That tempt me everywhere,
In the lonely fields, and the throng
Of the crowded thoroughfare!
I approach, and ye vanish away,
I grasp you, and ye are gone;
But ever by night an day,
The melody soundeth on.
As the weary traveller sees
In desert or prairie vast,
Blue lakes, overhung with trees,
That a pleasant shadow cast;
Fair towns with turrets high,
And shining roofs of gold,
That vanish as he draws nigh,
Like mists together rolled,–
So I wander and wander along,
And forever before me gleams
The shining city of song,
In the beautiful land of dreams.
But when I would enter the gate
Of that golden atmosphere,
It is gone, and I wonder and wait
For the vision to reappear.
Games From Folktales 