Habbanan beneath the Stars

Now Habbanan is that region where one draws nigh
To the places that are not of Men
There is the air very sweet and the sky very great
By reason of the broadness of the Earth

In Habbanan beneath the skies
Where all roads end however long
There is a sound of faint guitars
And distant echoes of a song
For there men gather into rings
Round their red fires while one voice sings
All about is night

Not night as ours, unhappy folk
Where nigh the Earth in hazy bars
A mist about the springing of the stars
There trails a thin and wandering smoke
Obscuring with his veil half-seen
The great abysmal still Serene

A globe of dark glass faceted with light
Wherein the splendid winds have dusky flight
Untrodden spaces of an odorous plain
That watches for the moon that long has lain
And caught the meteors' fiery rain
Such there is night

There on a sudden did my heart perceive
That they who sang about the Eve
Who answered the bright-shining stars
With gleaming music of their strange guitars
These were His wandering happy sons
Encamped upon those aëry leas
Where God's unsullied garment runs
In glory down His mighty knees