To Homer

Standing aloof in giant ignorance,

      Of thee I hear and of the Cyclades,

As one who sits ashore and longs perchance

      To visit dolphin-coral in deep seas.

So thou wast blind!—but then the veil was rent,

      For Jove uncurtain'd Heaven to let thee live,

And Neptune made for thee a spumy tent,

      And Pan made sing for thee his forest-hive;

Ay on the shores of darkness there is light,

      And precipices show untrodden green;

There is a budding morrow in midnight;

      There is a triple sight in blindness keen:

Such seeing hadst thou, as it once befell

To Dian, Queen of Earth, and Heaven, and Hell.