from "The Black Riders" by Stephen Crane

XXI

There was, before me,
Mile upon mile
Of snow, ice, burning sand.
And yet I could look beyond all this,
To a place of infinite beauty;
And I could see the loveliness of her
Who walked in the shade of the trees.
When I gazed,
All was lost
But this place of beauty and her.
When I gazed,
And in my gazing, desired,
Then came again
Mile upon mile,
Of snow, ice, burning sand.



Source of the text - Stephen Crane, The Black Riders and Other Lines.  [Boston]: Privately reprinted by courtesy of Small, Maynard & Co., 1905.

Bourguignomicon: Poem as mirage; or, a metaphor anticipating Heisenberg uncertainty? Well-paced short phrases take us into and out of a telescope of sorts.