Basilica + 

With aimless feet, along the verge + 

Of ocean, where the rocks emerge, + 

I strolled, and watched the baffled surge. + 

In sheltered channels at my feet, + 

The sleepy ripples crisping neat, + 

Slid in and out with sluicy beat. + 

The groaning sea, wind-smitten white⁠— + 

The day, shot through with throbbing light, + 

Lay palpitating on my sight. + 

From bloody death of stricken day, + 

And ocean’s leprous agony, + 

My weary eyes I drew away, + 

To where the rocks the margin mar + 

Of waters where the shadows are⁠— + 

And saw the smiling of a star. + 

Imbedded deep in mossy green, + 

A glinting gem with lustrous sheen, + 

Burnt wondrous with a flame serene, + 

My soul grew drunken with its ray⁠— + 

Like liquid April filing May, + 

Its wing-light suffused the day. + 

And day became⁠—with colors cold + 

New-drowned in beauties manifold⁠— + 

An opal chalice brimming gold. + 

A silent music clove the air⁠— + 

A spirit bent in worship there⁠— + 

My wish had wrought itself a prayer. + 

“O, if thy beauty, radiant stone, + 

Be not rejected love alone, + 

By wooing skies upon thee thrown; + 

But rather a desire intense, + 

Appealing thus to human sense + 

With more than human eloquence; + 

If so thou strivest to impart + 

The aspirations at thy heart⁠— + 

Pulsing a wish with every spark; + 

Give me to claim thy sacred ray, + 

I’ll bear thee from thy shades away, + 

And set thee in the perfect day. + 

I’ll niche thee in a shrine made fair + 

With wondrous woods and metals rare, + 

And dim with amber-tinted air. + 

And sculpted work of quaint device, + 

Gem-tinct with gleams of prismic ice⁠— + 

And lamps antique of fabled price⁠— + 

And droning troops of monkish bees, + 

With censers filled at spicy trees, + 

Shall minister on bended knees.” + 

Grey darkness fell upon the land, + 

With hasty clutch my eager hand + 

To snatch the gem from barren strand + 

Essayed. When, Lo! with stiffened hair⁠— + 

And vision smit with baleful glare⁠— + 

And hope sharp-freezing to despair, + 

With heart compressed as in a vice, + 

And forehead bound with sudden ice⁠— + 

I grasped a hidden Cockatrice. + 

O, with Heart of Stone with eyes of light, + 

And ivory throat of pallid white, + 

And snaky folds concealed from sight⁠— + 

With jeweled teeth, alas! and breath + 

Whose touch to passion ministreth⁠— + 

Sweet-spiced with aromatic death! + 

No pen of poison, gall-immersed, + 

Of deadly sins can name thy worst; + 

Or fitly curse thy race accursed. + 