In a vale of light and laughter, <br />Shining 'neath the friendly sun, <br />Where fulfilment follow'd after <br />Ev'ry hope or dream begun; <br />Where an Aidenn gay and glorious, <br />Beckon'd down the winsome way; <br />There my soul, o'er pain victorious, <br />Laugh'd and lingered - yesterday. <br /> <br />Green and narrow was my valley, <br />Temper'd with a verdant shade; <br />Sun deck'd brooklets musically <br />Sparkled thro' each glorious glade; <br />And at night the stars serenely <br />Glow'd betwixt the boughs o'erhead, <br />While Astarte, calm and queenly, <br />Floods of fairy radiance shed. <br /> <br />There amid the tinted bowers, <br />Raptur'd with the opiate spell <br />Of the grasses, ferns and flowers, <br />Poppy, Phlox and Pimpernel, <br />Long I lay, entranc'd and dreaming, <br />Pleas'd with Nature's bounteous store, <br />Till I mark'd the shaded gleaming <br />Of the sky, and yearn'd for more. <br /> <br />Eagerly the branches tearing, <br />Clear'd I all the space above, <br />Till the bolder gaze, high faring, <br />Scann'd the naked skies of Jove; <br />Deeps unguess'd now shone before me, <br />Splendid beam'd the solar car; <br />Wings of fervid fancy bore me <br />Out beyond the farthest star. <br /> <br />Reaching, gasping, wishing, longing <br />For the pageant brought to sight, <br />Vain I watch'd the gold orbs thronging <br />Round the celestial poles of light. <br />Madly on a moonbeam ladder <br />Heav'ns abyss I sought to scale, <br />Ever wiser, ever sadder, <br />As the fruitless task would fail. <br /> <br />Then, with futile striving sated, <br />Veer'd my soul to earth again, <br />Well content that I was fated <br />For a fair, yet low domain; <br />Pleasing thoughts of glad tomorrows, <br />Like the blissful moments past, <br />Lull'd to rest my transient sorrows, <br />Stil'd my godless greed at last. <br /> <br />But my downward glance, returning, <br />Shrank in fright from what it spy'd; <br />Slopes in hideous torment burning, <br />Terror in the brooklet's tide: <br />For the dell, of shade denuded <br />By my desecrating hand, <br />'Neath the bare sky blaz'd and brooded <br />As a lost, accursed land.<br /><br />Howard Phillips Lovecraft<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/revelation-60/
