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Beyond heavens shuttered dome
I have found a way to come
Where swifter than thought may fly
The breath of a morning sigh.
Falcon thou art, and hast made
Thy nest in the grassy glade,
And? its air, I am fearful, might
Foreshorten thy pinions flight.
Art thou dust become? It is clear
Thou canst not be resting here;
On the breeze of the morning ride,
Sit not by the roadway side.
From the stream of the stars arise
And cross the Nile of the skies;
For the heart must die right soon
If it lodge, though it be in the moon.
Let its breast no longer beam
With the rockless lightnings gleam,
Less worth than a straw reckon I
The mountain of Sinai.
How men may the manners keep
Of the throng, yet consuming leap
Ask not of us, whom the gaze
Of the passing fair one slays.
When I am dead, this may lay
Men will recite, and say:
"One man, who was self-aware,
Transformed a world everywhere!"