On winter nights beside the nursery fire
We read the fairy tale, while glowing coals
Builded its pictures.  There before our eyes
We saw the vaulted¹ hall of traceried stone
Uprear itself, the distant ceiling hung
With pendent stalactites like frozen vines;
And all along the walls at intervals,
Curled upwards² into pillars, roses climbed,
And ramped³ and were confined, and clustered leaves
Divided where there peered a laughing face.
The foliage⁴ seemed to rustle⁵ in the wind,
A silent murmur⁶, carved in still, gray stone.
High pointed⁷ windows pierced the southern wall
Whence proud escutcheons flung prismatic fires
To stain the tessellated marble floor
With pools of red, and quivering green, and blue;
And in the shade beyond the further door,
Its sober squares of black and white were hid
Beneath a restless, shuffling⁸, wide-eyed mob
Of lackeys⁹ and retainers come to view
The Christening.
A sudden blare of trumpets¹⁰, and the throng
About the entrance parted as the guests
Filed singly in with rare and precious gifts.
Our eager fancies noted¹¹ all they brought,
The glorious, unattainable delights!
But always there was one unbidden guest
Who cursed the child and left it bitterness.
The fire falls asunder¹², all is changed,
I am no more a child, and what I see
Is not a fairy tale, but life, my life.
The gifts are there, the many pleasant things:
Health, wealth, long-settled friendships, with a name
Which honors all who bear it, and the power
Of making words obedient.  This is much;
But overshadowing all is still the curse,
That never shall I be fulfilled by love!
Along the parching¹³ highroad of the world
No other soul shall bear mine company.
Always shall I be teased with semblances,
With cruel impostures, which I trust awhile
Then dash to pieces, as a careless boy
Flings a kaleidoscope, which shattering
Strews all the ground about with coloured sherds.
So I behold¹⁴ my visions on the ground
No longer radiant, an ignoble¹⁵ heap
Of broken, dusty glass.  And so, unlit,
Even by hope or faith, my dragging steps
Force me forever through the passing days.

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