A realm of dreams is that sublimest chasm
Cleft by the gods in Arizona's plain,
Where peak on peak, shrine, fortress, weird phantasm,
Crowd the abyss and make our grandeur vain!
Where, with the dawn, full many a dome and palace
Fair as Aladdin's, fronts the terraced wall,
And towering altar-pile and carven chalice
Shine with the hues of heaven at evening's fall.
Where, south, loom Karnaks on the wide horizon--
Sphinx, temple, obelisk, to hail the sun;
North, slow cloud-shadows pass like herds of bison
Trailing across the gorges, bold and dun;
Where, in its awful bed, the Colorado,
Curbless, triumphant, to the hot Gulf goes,
And dreams, in quiet pools, of mountain meadow,
And the far splendor of Wyoming snows.
There when the sun sets and the glows are paling,
And sorrowing winds make moan by fane and tree--
Such sorrow as through Hades went bewailing
The glory vanished with Persephone--
When mid their crags the mountain sheep are folded,
And the cliff eagles to their eyries flown,
While all the mighty forms the gods have moulded,
Wrap them in purple dusk and grieve alone;
When the fond moon has climbed the eastern mountains
And silvered all her waiting peaks and pines
Past Rio Grande's, Colorado's fountains--
The Ancient People throng their wonted shrines.
Silent as mists they steal by cliff and hollow;
With soundless feet they thread the woodland ways;
Only the wind, low-breathing, dares to follow
Their flitting bands through pass and darkling maze.
Hark! you may almost hear the incantations,
The rhythmic dance, the chant, the murmured prayer,
And, from afar, the faint reverberations
Of cry and drum-beat thrilling through the air--
The herald's call, perchance, when danger hovers,
And chiefs and clans for council he must rouse,
The laugh of children, speech of happy lovers
Soft as the sighing in the cedar boughs.
But ere day brightens Coconino's dimness,
Or proud Francisco's peaks have caught its rose,
Or with its flush the gray walls lose their grimness,
Ah, whither?--and the night wind only knows--
The night wind and the stars that watch forever
Above the shrines where their brown children throng,
And, swift beneath, the lone, triumphant river
That bears their secret seaward with its song!
A realm of dreams is that sublimest chasm
Cleft by the gods in Arizona's plain,
Where peak on peak, shrine, fortress, weird phantasm,
Crowd the abyss and make our grandeur vain!
Where festal sounds are heard if we but harken,
And shy forms flit and meet till moonlight wanes,
And the wind dies, and eerie shadows darken,
For over peak and plain enchantment reigns.
