The Secret Splendour

(This is an 8-line experiment in a 4-foot metre of 8 syllables per line, in which the first line contains 8 words, the second 7, the third 6, and so on in a regular diminishing series until the eighth, which has just a single 8-syllabled word.)

Dumb dusk has taught his heart to sing.

 He shuts his mortal ears and eyes—

He pierces through each outlined thing

And strains beyond earth's harmonies:

Poet with visionary wing

Penetrates supernatured skies—

 Innumerably glimmering

 Incomprehensibilities!

Page 627