My soul is an enchanted boat, <br />Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float <br />Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing; <br />And thine doth like an angel sit <br />Beside a helm conducting it, <br />Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing. <br />It seems to float ever, for ever, <br />Upon that many-winding river, <br />Between mountains, woods, abysses, <br />A paradise of wildernesses! <br />Till, like one in slumber bound, <br />Borne to the ocean, I float down, around, <br />Into a sea profound, of ever-spreading sound: <br /> <br />Meanwhile thy spirit lifts its pinions <br />In music's most serene dominions; <br />Catching the winds that fan that happy heaven. <br />And we sail on, away, afar, <br />Without a course, without a star, <br />But, by the instinct of sweet music driven; <br />Till through Elysian garden islets <br />By thee, most beautiful of pilots, <br />Where never mortal pinnace glided, <br />The boat of my desire is guided: <br />Realms where the air we breathe is love, <br />Which in the winds and on the waves doth move, <br />Harmonizing this earth with what we feel above. <br /> <br />We have past Age's icy caves, <br />And Manhood's dark and tossing waves, <br />And Youth's smooth ocean, smiling to betray: <br />Beyond the glassy gulfs we flee <br />Of shadow-peopled Infancy, <br />Through Death and Birth, to a diviner day; <br />A paradise of vaulted bowers, <br />Lit by downward-gazing flowers, <br />And watery paths that wind between <br />Wildernesses calm and green, <br />Peopled by shapes too bright to see, <br />And rest, having beheld; somewhat like thee; <br />Which walk upon the sea, and chant melodiously!<br /><br />Percy Bysshe Shelley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/asia-from-prometheus-unbound/
