XXXVI + 

The Star Bath + 

A place uplifted towards the midnight sky + 

Far, far away among the mountains old, + 

A treeless waste of rocks and freezing cold, + 

Where the dead, cheerless moon rode neighbouring by⁠— + 

And in the midst a silent tarn there lay, + 

A narrow pool, cold as the tide that flows + 

Where monstrous bergs beyond Varanger stray, + 

Rising from sunless depths that no man knows; + 

Thither as clustering fireflies have I seen + 

At fixèd seasons all the stars come down + 

To wash in that cold wave their brightness clean + 

And win the special fire wherewith they crown + 

The wintry heavens in frost. Even as a flock + 

Of falling birds, down to the pool they came. + 

I saw them and I heard the icy shock + 

Of stars engulfed with hissing of faint flame + 

—Ages ago before the birth of men + 

Or earliest beast. Yet I was still the same + 

That now remember, knowing not where or when. + 