That Bright Chimeric Beast

That bright chimeric

Conceived yet never born,

Save in the poet's breast,

The white-flanked unicorn,

Never may be

From his solitude;

Never may be

In any earthly wood.

That bird forever feathered,

Of its new self the sire,

After aeons weathered,

Reincarnate by fire,

Falcon may not nor

Swerve from his eyrie,

Nor any crumb

Down to an earthly tree.

That fish of the dread

Invented to

The fable and the

Of the Lord's aquarium,

Leviathan, the

Harpoon was never

By which the Lord's

Will suffer to be caught.

Bird of the deathless breast,

Fish of the frantic fin,

That bright chimeric

Flashing the argent skin,—If beasts like these you'd harry,

Plumb then the poet's dream;

Make it your aviary,

Make it your wood and stream.

There only shall the

Be heard of the regal fish;

There like a golden

Dart the feet of the unicorn,

And there, death brought to life,

The dead bird be reborn.