





marriage in the twilight of yester even. 

 In the deep, passionate heart of these splen- 

 did flowers, fragrant since they bloomed 

 in Sappho's hand centuries ago, this sub- 

 lime wedlock is annually celebrated ; earth 

 and sky meet and commingle in this mir- 

 acle of colour and sweetness, and when I 

 carry this lovely flower into my study all 

 the poets fall silent ; here is a depth of life, 

 a radiant outcome from the heart of mys- 

 teries, a hint of unimagined beauty, such 

 as they have never brought to me in all 

 their seeking. They have had their visions 

 and made them music; they have caught 

 faint echoes of rushing seas and falling 

 tides ; the shadows of mountains have fallen 

 upon them with low whisperings of un- 

 speakable things hidden in the unexplored 

 recesses of their solitudes ; they have 

 searched the limitless arch of heaven when 

 it was sown with stars, and glittered like 

 "an archangel full panoplied against a 

 battle day;" but in all their quest the 

 sublime unity of Nature, the fellowship of 

 force with force, of sea with sky, of moist - 

 53 



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