Another poem by the Danish writer Schack von Staffeldt

Initiation

I sat far out on the sound’s still shore,

        The skies were smiling;

And filled with longing I gazed down o’er

        The waves beguiling.

The sun slipped into the sea’s embrace,

The coast and sky joined in blushing grace.

With sweet foreboding a harp I heard,

        The clouds now rending;

The muse descended, in sunlight girt,

        Her lyre extending.

She sealed my lips with kiss of fire

And sank down into her shimmering pyre.

Then all around me the world was new:

        The winds spoke softly;

From pale clouds drifting before the moon

        Called spirits lofty;

In all creation a loving heart beat,

My own reflection in all did I meet.

Since then the earth each thought and desire

        Does now imprison;

Though dreams ease longing, as do song’s lyre

        And premonition,

The kiss consumes me, no peace can see birth

Before the skies I bring down to earth!

To see the original poem, go to here