Shadows of Thee

By George Sterling

How picture what thy beauty is to me?
    'Tis like a wine that laughing gods have crushed;
    A dream by some forgotten sunset flushed;
A fane of silver on a moonlit sea;
A morning ocean where the winds are free.
    'Tis like a garden by the twilight hushed;
    A bower where a perfect rose has blushed;
A sense of music from eternity.

Oh! all of loveliness by Nature blent
With lure and vision to the spirit lent
    Are but the symbols of thy goddesshood!
        Thou comest on the silence of my sleep
    As once at dawn the Cytherean stood
        A flame of splendor on the adoring deep!

Written in Carmel.