Have you got this beginning to your MS. of the Dream of Fair Women? It
is very splendid.
1.
As when a man that sails in a balloon
Down looking sees the solid shining ground
Stream from beneath him in the broad blue noon,--
Tilth, hamlet, mead and mound:
2.
And takes his flags, and waves them to the mob
That shout below, all faces turn'd to where
Glows rubylike the far-up crimson globe
Filled with a finer air:
3.
So, lifted high, the Poet at his will
Lets the great world flit from him, seeing all,
Higher through secret splendours mounting still
Self-poised, nor fears to fall,