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;
     Aye 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 befel
     To Dian, Queen of Earth, and Heaven, and Hell.