On a Primitive Canoe

Here, passing lonely down this quiet lane,

Before a mud-splashed window long I pause

To gaze and gaze, while through my active brain

Still thoughts are stirred to wakefulness; because

Long, long ago in a dim unknown land,

A massive forest-tree, ax-felled, adze-hewn,

Was deftly done by cunning mortal hand

Into a symbol of the tender moon.

Why does it thrill more than the handsome boat

That bore me o'er the wild Atlantic ways,

And fill me with rare sense of things remote

From this harsh life of fretful nights and days?

I cannot answer but, whate'er it be,

An old wine has intoxicated me.