POETRY AND SCIENCE
NIGHT, like a silver Peacock in the sky
By Moon bewitched turns many thousand eyes In vacancy. Flits past in fading mist A Comet's tail, the Phidenix of the Sun, Blown from her burning nest of whitened ash.
If this be false 'it is illusion's gain Since all we know is but a mid-day dream: Sun"Moon and Stars—are they not Fancy's names, Products of human orbs which like these roll In automatic frenzy, maddened by Light?
Light's blinding lust, like an invisible worm Hatched in th:: small, dark nucleus of the atom Flies out a Dragon, whose cyclopaedic seed Sprout wings thro' Natural History—red, blue,..yellow: Crocus, Auk, Griffin, Mandrake, Dandelion.
Latest begotten of Light's progeny, Proton and Neutron, have large unfound kin Awaiting birth ; some stay nameless heroes Of stories not yet written, some—stars in films— Lie, celluloid unremembered, packed in cans.
Man's endless Phantasy pours in procession: Tyrannic Leaders, Kings and Presidents ; Phantoms of spiritual hunger—Christ and Buddha ; Constructions vaguer still—Sin, Evolution— Eggs of that Great Auk, Human Imagination.
But childrel, grown-up, take fairy tales for real. Yes, they are real, real stories of Hans Andersen. There is no other truth than purest fiction But what it means let none pretend to say, Or saying, at least say only, This is my dream.
This is my dream that all the World is one— Stones, trees, birds, men, Light, Jesus and the Devil. Fret not on any rung of Change's spiral For all is Change, yet all is One for ever— Love, hate, crime, virtue, fitting into one Whole.
In short, these words are words and words are dreams, All words—the scientists', poets', philosophers' and pries!' You like the dream? Methinks I like it not.
Yet every thought is but a flower of Fancy Beloved by someone, even as every flower.
I like them all ; some greatly, others less.
To me ideas are fair as flowers or girls (I cannot tell you why I find some silly yet still to like). Others have such rare beauty They fill me with new joy—this is my dream.
W. J. TURNER•
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