Analysis of Caprice

Blue and gold, and mist and sunlight,  
 Veils of colour blent and blown  
 In melodic monotone.  
Dark and bright, and white and dun light  
Clash and flash, as into one light          
 Trembling thro’ an opal stone,  
Over green robes of the mountain  
 And the blue skirts of the sea,  
Spreading from a sacred fountain  
 Hymeneal harmony.          

Drums and trumpets of the ocean,  
 Oboe spirits of the wind,  
 Violins of forest kind,  
Flutes that breathe the trees’ devotion,  
Blending, hymn the joyous motion          
 Of the universal mind,  
When, with chariot cavorting,  
 And a storm of symphonies,  
Horses snorting, banners sporting,  
 Ocean Seas wed Harbour Seas.          

Salt of waves, and scent of roses,  
 Seaweed strown along the sand,  
 Blossoms blown from high head-land,  
As the Ocean-Lord reposes  
Where the Harbour dreams and dozes,          
 Sultan and Sultana bland,  
Rocky shrubs, earth, fragrant grasses  
 Spiced with sand and sea and sun,  
As the gay procession passes,  
 Know that all things are but one.          

At the sun a wave laughs, leaping  
 Thro’ intoxicating air  
 Like a child with tossing hair.  
But a sea-gull, vigil keeping  
Flutters, musically sweeping,          
 Delicate and debonair,  
Where the wave leaps, lightly wheeling,  
 Like a flash of amethyst  
Clasps the wave, then leaves her, stealing  
 Kisses by the sunshine kissed.          

Bird that brilliant pinion flies on  
 Thro’ the azure atmosphere  
 Pipes a duet, sweet and clear,  
With the wind the sunlight lies on;  
Sea weds Sky on dim horizon,          
 And the distant joins the near.  
Wave and cloud, and fish and swallow,  
 Swaying tree and flying bird  
Music maddened, flee and follow  
 Till pale mortals, too, are stirred.          

Over all things Love stands warder.  
 Cloud seeks wave, while close behind  
 Cloud is followed by the wind.  
Dionysean disorder  
Laughs, and leaps o’er bar and border,          
 Breaks the shackles of the mind;  
And in wine-enchanted weather  
 Culls, that life and joy be one,  
Grapes to mix all things together  
 From the Garden of the Sun.          

Nature takes delight in shedding  
 Love that joins with benison  
 All the elements in one;  
And to-day the feast is spreading  
Till her creatures all are wedding,          
 And of sorrow there is none…  
So the Summer Day rehearses  
 Bridal lyrics mad to sing  
As a viol or a verse is,  
 Of the joy of everything.