To A Spider Web Wet With Dew
Suspended o’er the grass there floats a web
More delicate than strands of gossamer
Wet with the morning dew, in pendant gems
That flame with reds and greens and darting blues
From the bright sun. A filmy nothingness
Made visible by jeweled drops and etched,
Like frosted silver, on a background dark
Of drooping pines. An airy talisman
As lustrous as a diamond necklace draped
About a Peri’s throat. What fleeting glimpse
Of loveliness ethereal and unreal
Inspired that rapt enchantment of design,
That harp of strings attuned to elfin songs,
That ladder for the moonsprites nightly trail
From sky to earth. What miracle of line,
What shimmering grace, what witchery of form!
So fragile that a fallen leaf may rend
Its warp of magic ne’er to know the woof
Of hard reality. A diagram
Of elfin tracery impalpable;
Each angle and its intersections squared
By that grotesque geometer who spins
Unseen, a hateful spider, ogre grim
To all the insect world. Can ugliness
So venomous create a thing so fair
Beyond the range of art? In pensive mood
We pause a moment to admire and scan
Its meaning. Can such fairy elegance
Spring from so foul a source? Yet legends tell
How crippled Vulcan, grimed with dust and smoke,
In darkness wrought the glorious shield of Mars.
The water lily, blossom honey sweet,
Draws nectar from the mire. Nor time nor bounds
May curb that hidden beauty that wells up
From secret springs in nooks obscure and dark,
Till gems of dew upon a spider’s web
Glow like the Pleiades in frosted skies.