Ecstasy

I saw a frieze on whitest marble drawn
    Of boys who sought for shells along the shore,
    Their white feet shedding pallor in the sea,
    The shallow sea, the spring-time sea of green
    That faintly creamed against the cold, smooth pebbles.

    The air was thin, their limbs were delicate,
    The wind had graven their small eager hands
    To feel the forests and the dark nights of Asia
    Behind the purple bloom of the horizon,
    Where sails would float and slowly melt away.

    Their naked, pure, and grave, unbroken silence
    Filled the soft air as gleaming, limpid water
    Fills a spring sky those days when rain is lying
    In shattered bright pools on the wind-dried roads,
    And their sweet bodies were wind-purified.

    One held a shell unto his shell-like ear
    And there was music carven in his face,
    His eyes half-closed, his lips just breaking open
    To catch the lulling, mazy, coralline roar
    Of numberless caverns filled with singing seas.

    And all of them were hearkening as to singing
    Of far-off voices thin and delicate,
    Voices too fine for any mortal wind
    To blow into the whorls of mortal ears -
    And yet those sounds flowed from their grave, sweet
    faces.

    And as I looked I heard that delicate music,
    And I became as grave, as calm, as still
    As those carved boys. I stood upon that shore,
    I felt the cool sea dream around my feet,
    My eyes were staring at the far horizon:

    And the wind came and purified my limbs,
    And the stars came and set within my eyes,
    And snowy clouds rested upon my shoulders,
    And the blue sky shimmered deep within me,
    And I sang like a carven pipe of music.