Classic Poem

When first the earth broke from her parent ring
Trembling an instant ere her separate life
Had found the unfailing pulse of night and day,
Her inner half that met the effusive Sun
Had earlier largesse of his rays and thrilled
To the celestial music of the dawn
While yet the western half was cold and sad,
Shivering beneath the whisper of the stars.
So Asia was the earliest home of light:
The little seeds first germinated there,
Birds first made bridals, and the year first knew
Autumnal ripeness. Ever wandering sound
That dumbly throbbed within the homeless vast
Took sweet imprisonment in song and speech—
Like light more beauteous for shattering,
Parted melodious in the trembling throat
Of the first matin bird; made utterance
From the full-rounded lips of that young race
Who moved by the omnipresent Energy
Dividing towards sublimer union,
Clove sense and image subtilly in twain,
Then wedded them, till heavenly Thought was born.