Classic Poem

How softly runs the afternoon
Beneath the billowy clouds of June!

How brightly every moment slips,
How lightly sail the great cloud-ships!

How slowly all the galleons go
Within that airy sea of snow —

Their white sails set, vast argosies
Bound for mysterious Hebrides!

Ah, let them vanish in the light
Beyond the sun, beyond the night,

Faring to harbors strange and dim
Beyond the great world's utter rim!

I shall not care; I envy not
Their journeyings to lands forgot;

For in the wonder of your smiles
My heart is on enchanted isles;

And in the silence of your soul
I reach love's paradisal goal;

In the soft pressure of your hands
I touch far magic fairy-lands;

And in the rapture of your kiss
I find the heavenly peaks of bliss.

Beneath the billowy skies of June
How softly runs the afternoon!