I crossed the White Stream at its slender source
When Dawn first cleft the tangle of the stars
And shook the darkness from her. And I saw,
Passing a while from the worn tracks of men,
Islands innumerable environèd
In Nature's colours gold and green. The sky
Laid the blue mirror of eternity
Upon the shining waters. One by one
The clouds sailed out to sea. My random thoughts
Went wandering where monsters silver-mailed
Flash down their native streams. I sang the songs
That swelled with noon and faltered with the dusk
And failed in the twilight. Then I sought the gleam
Of cottage eaves amid the moonlit fields.