Poetry Archives

“In Vishnu-land, what avatar?”
                           —BROWNING.

Perchance the dying gods of Earth
Are destined to another birth,
And worn-out creeds regain their worth
  In the kindly air of other stars—
What lords of life and light hold sway
In the myriad worlds of the Milky Way?
  What avatars in Mars?

What Aphrodites from the seas
That lap the plunging Pleiades
  Arise to spread afar
The dream that was the soul of Greece?
  In Mars, what avatar?

Which hundred moons are wan with love
  For dull Endymions?
Which hundred moons hang tranced above
  Audacious Ajalons?

What Holy Grail lures errants pale
  Through the wastes of yonder star?
What fables sway the Milky Way?
  In Mars, what avatar?

When morning skims with crimson wings
  Across the meres of Mercury,
What dreaming Memnon wakes and sings
  Of miracles on Mercury?
What Christs, what avatars,
Claim Mars?