Do I find love so full in my nature, God's ultimate gift, That I doubt his own love can compete with it? Here, the parts shift? Here, the creature surpass the Creator, the end, what Began? Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all for this man, From thy will stream the worlds, life I will? the mere atoms despise me! To look that, even that in the face too? Think but lightly of such impuissance? And dare doubt he alone shall not help This; him, who yet alone can? Would it ever have entered my mind, the bare will, much less power, To bestow on this Saul what I sang of, the marvellous dower Of the life he was gifted and filled with? to make such a soul, Such a body, and then such an earth for insphering the whole? And doth it not enter my mind (as my These good things being given, to go on, 'tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do! See the King-I would help him but cannot, the wishes fall through. Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow, grow poor to enrich, To fill up his life, starve my own out, I would knowing which, I know that my service is perfect. Oh, speak through me now! Would I suffer for him that I love? So wouldst thou so wilt thou! So shall crown thee the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost crown And thy love fill infinitude wholly, nor leave up nor down One spot for the creature to stand in! It is by no breath, Turn of eye, wave of hand, that salvation joins issue with death! As thy Love is discovered almighty, almighty be proved Thy power, that exists with and for it, of being Beloved! He who did most, shall bear most; the In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. A Face like my face that receives thee; Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever: a Hand like this hand Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!" XIX I know not too well how I found my way home in the night. There were witnesses, cohorts about me, to left and to right, Angels, powers, the unuttered, unseen, the alive, the aware: I repressed, I got through them as hardly, as strugglingly there, As a runner beset by the populace famished for news Life or death. The whole earth was awakened, hell loosed with her crews; And the stars of night beat with emotion, and tingled and shot Out in fire the strong pain of pent knowl edge: but I fainted not, For the Hand still impelled me at once and supported, suppressed All the tumult, and quenched it with quiet, and holy behest, Till the rapture was shut in itself, and the earth sank to rest. Anon at the dawn, all that trouble had withered from earth Not so much, but I saw it die out in the day's tender birth; In the gathered intensity brought to the gray of the hills; In the shuddering forests' held breath; in the sudden wind-thrills; In the startled wild beasts that bore off, each with eye sidling still Though averted with wonder and dread; in the birds stiff and chill That rose heavily, as I approached them, made stupid with awe : E'en the serpent that slid away silent, he felt the new law. The same stared in the white humid faces upturned by the flowers; The same worked in the heart of the cedar and moved the vine-bowers: And the little brooks witnessing murmured, persistent and low, With their obstinate, all but hushed voices "E'en so, it is so!" EVELYN HOPE BEAUTIFUL Evelyn Hope is dead! Sit and watch by her side an hour. That is her book-shelf, this her bed; She plucked that piece of geraniumflower, Each was naught to each, must I be told? We were fellow mortals, naught beside? No, indeed! for God above Is great to grant, as mighty to make, And creates the love to reward the love: Delayed it may be for more lives yet, I claim you still, for my own love's sakę! Through worlds I shall traverse, not a few: Much is to learn, much to forget Ere the time be come for taking you. But the time will come at last it will, When, Evelyn Hope, what meant (I shall say) In the lower earth, in the years long still, That body and sou! so pure and gay? Why your hair was amber, I shall divine, And your mouth of your own gera nium's red And what you would do with me, in fine, In the new life come in the old life's stead. I have lived (I shall say) so much since then, Given up myself so many times, Gained me the gains of various men, Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes; Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope, I loved you, Evelyn, all the while! My heart seemed full as it could hold; There was place and to spare for the frank young smile, And the red young mouth, and the hair's young gold. And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass Never was! Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads And embeds Every vestige of the city, guessed alone, Where a multitude of men breathed joy dread of shame Struck them tame; So, hush, I will give you this leaf to keep: Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, And that glory and that shame alike, the gold Bought and sold. Now, the single little turret that remains On the plains, By the caper overrooted, by the gourd While the patching houseleek's head of Through the chinks Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time Sprang sublime, And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced As they raced. And the monarch and his minions and his dames Viewed the games. And I know, while thus the quiet-colored eve Smiles to leave To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece In such peace, And the slopes and rills in undistinguished gray Melt away That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair In the turret whence the charioteers For the goal, When the king looked, where she looks now, breathless, dumb Till I come. MY STAR ALL that I know Is, it can throw (Like the angled spar) Now a dart of red, Now a dart of blue; Till my friends have said They would fain see, too, My star that dartles the red and the blue! Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled: They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it. What matter to me if their star is a world? Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it. Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach; Than the two hearts beating each to each! PARTING AT MORNING ROUND the cape of a sudden came the sea, And the sun looked over the mountain's rim: And straight was a path of gold for him, And the need of a world of men for me. |