Chapter XLIII: Afterword

_What vague traditions do the golden eves,
What legends do the dawns
Inscribe in fire on Heaven’s azure leaves,
The red sun colophons?_

_What ancient stories do the waters verse?
What tales of war and love
Do winds within the Earth’s vast house rehearse,
God’s stars stand guard above?_

_Would I could know them as they are expressed
In hue and melody!
And say, in words, the beauties they suggest,
Language their mystery!_

_And in one song magnificently rise,
The music of the spheres,
That more than marble should immortalize
My name in after years._