Somnium Mystici Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDCDEDEFEFGFGHGHI HIJIJKJKFKFBFBCBCLCL CMCMBMBLBLNLNONOPOPQ PQRQRSRSFSFOFOTOU VWVWGWGBGBVBVVVVXVXY XYBYBZBZVA2VBVBVBVVV V I FBFBVBVFVFB2FB2C2B2C 2 V VVVVPVPFPFBFBD2BD2VD 2VVVVVVVBVBVBVBVBE2B E2VE2VVVVVVV I B2MB2MFMFVFVFVFF2FG2 H2G2H2FH2FFFFVFVI2VI 2VI2VVVVJ2IJ2VJ2VVVV H2VH2VH2VXVXVXV I VBVBFBFIFVVIVMVMC2MK 2L2C2L2BL2BM2BM2N2M2 N2ZN2ZH2ZH2FH2FVFVH2 VH2BH2BO2BWB2O2B2 I VVVVVVVVVVFVFFFFVFVP 2VP2VP2VBVBVBV F VWVWVWVVVVVVVPVPBPBH 2BH2VH2VBVBMBMVMVVVV IVI F VIVIC2IC2BC2BVBVQ2VR 2VR2VVVVBVBVBVVVIVIV FVFVFVBVBS2BT2H2S2H2 BH2BVBVO2VO2U2O2U2 F VOVOFOFBFBV2BV2MV2MF MFW2FW2BW2BVBV F FBFBVBVH2VH2VH2VVVVN VNK2NC2 F IYIYR2YR2YR2YFYFVFVV VVBVB I YD2YD2FD2FJ2FJ2FJ2FF FFPFPFPFFFFYFYFYFH2F H2 Y H2FH2FVFVVVVU2VU2PU2 PNPNVNVPVP Y K2VK2VX2VX2FX2FVFVYV YD2YD2H2D2H2FH2FVFV Y FH2FH2VH2VY2VY2Z2Y2Z 2A3Z2A3VA3VI2VI2B2I2 B2BB2BFBFFFF Y C2FC2FB3FB3H2B3H2PH2 PC3PO2 F YFYFYFYVYV F YPYPW2PW2FW2FD3FD3BD 3B

A Microcosm In Terza Rima	A
	-
I	-
	-
Quiet I lay at last and knew no more	B
Whether I breathed or not so worn I lay	C
With the death struggle What was yet before	B
Neither I met nor turned from it away	C
My only conscious being was the rest	D
Of pain gone dead dead with the bygone day	C
And long I could have lingered all but blest	D
In that half slumber But there came a sound	E
As of a door that opened in the west	D
Somewhere I thought it As the hare the hound	E
The noise did start my eyelids and they rose	F
I turned my eyes and looked Then straight I found	E
It was my chamber door that did unclose	F
For a tall form up to my bedside drew	G
Grand was it silent its very walk repose	F
And when I saw the countenance I knew	G
That I was lying in my chamber dead	H
For this my brother brothers such are few	G
That now to greet me bowed his kingly head	H
Had many years agone like holy dove	I
Returning from his friends and kindred sped	H
And leaving memories of mournful love	I
Passed vanishing behind the unseen veil	J
And though I loved him all high words above	I
Not for his loss then did I weep or wail	J
Knowing that here we live but in a tent	K
And seeking home shall find it without fail	J
Feeble but eager toward him my hands went	K
I too was dead so might the dead embrace	F
Taking me by the shoulders down he bent	K
And lifted me I was in sickly case	F
But growing stronger stood up on the floor	B
There turned and once regarded my dead face	F
With curious eyes its brow contentment wore	B
But I had done with it and turned away	C
I saw my brother by the open door	B
And followed him out into the night blue gray	C
The houses stood up hard in limpid air	L
The moon hung in the heavens in half decay	C
And all the world to my bare feet lay bare	L
	-
II	-
	-
Now I had suffered in my life as they	C
Must suffer and by slow years younger grow	M
From whom the false fool self must drop away	C
Compact of greed and fear which gathered slow	M
Darkens the angel self that evermore	B
Where no vain phantom in or out shall go	M
Moveless beholds the Father stands before	B
The throne of revelation waiting there	L
With wings low drooping on the sapphire floor	B
Until it find the Father's ideal fair	L
And be itself at last not one small thorn	N
Shall needless any pilgrim's garments tear	L
And but to say I had suffered I would scorn	N
Save for the marvellous thing that next befell	O
Sudden I grew aware I was new born	N
All pain had vanished in the absorbent swell	O
Of some exalting peace that was my own	P
As the moon dwelt in heaven did calmness dwell	O
At home in me essential The earth's moan	P
Lay all behind Had I then lost my part	Q
In human griefs dear part with them that groan	P
'Tis weariness I said but with a start	Q
That set it trembling and yet brake it not	R
I found the peace was love Oh my rich heart	Q
For every time I spied a glimmering spot	R
Of window pane There in that silent room	S
Thought I mayhap sleeps human heart whose lot	R
Is therefore dear to mine I cared for whom	S
I saw not had not seen and might not see	F
After the love crept prone its shadow gloom	S
But instant a mightier love arose in me	F
As in an ocean a single wave will swell	O
And heaved the shadow to the centre we	F
Had called it prayer before on sleep I fell	O
It sank and left my sea in holy calm	T
I gave each man to God and all was well	O
And in my heart stirred soft a sleeping psalm	U
	-
III	-
	-
No gentlest murmur through the city crept	V
Not one lone word my brother to me had spoken	W
But when beyond the city gate we stept	V
I knew the hovering silence would be broken	W
A low night wind came whispering through and through	G
It did baptize me with the pledge and token	W
Of that soft spirit wind which blows and blew	G
And fans the human world since evermore	B
The very grass cool to my feet I knew	G
To be love also and with the love I bore	B
To hold far sympathy silent and sweet	V
As having known the secret from of yore	B
In the eternal heart where all things meet	V
Feelings and thinkings and where still they are bred	V
Sudden he stood and with arrested feet	V
I also Like a half sunned orb his head	V
Slow turned the bright side lo the brother smile	X
That ancient human glory on me shed	V
Clothed in which Jesus came forth to wile	X
Unto his bosom every labouring soul	Y
And all dividing passions to beguile	X
To winsome death and then on them to roll	Y
The blessed stone of the holy sepulchre	B
Thank God he said thou also now art whole	Y
And sound and well For the keen pain and stir	B
Uneasy and sore grief that came to us all	Z
In that we knew not how the wine and myrrh	B
Could ever from the vinegar and gall	Z
Be parted are deep sunk yea drowned in God	V
And yet the past not folded in a pall	A2
But breathed upon like Aaron's withered rod	V
By a sweet light that brings the blossoms through	B
Showing in dreariest paths that men have trod	V
Another's foot prints spotted of crimson hue	B
Still on before wherever theirs did wend	V
Yea through the desert leading of thyme and rue	B
The desert souls in which young lions rend	V
And roar the passionate who to be blest	V
Ravin as bears and do not gain their end	V
Because that save in God there is no rest	V
	-
IV	I
	-
Something my brother said to me like this	F
But how unlike it also think I pray	B
His eyes were music and his smile a kiss	F
Himself the word his speech was but a ray	B
In the clear nimbus that with verity	V
Of absolute utterance made a home born day	B
Of truth about him lamping solemnly	V
And when he paused there came a swift repose	F
Too high too still to be called ecstasy	V
A purple silence lanced through in the close	F
By such keen thought that with a sudden smiling	B2
It grew sheen silver hearted with burning rose	F
He was a glory full of reconciling	B2
Of faithfulness of love with no self stain	C2
Of tenderness and care and brother wiling	B2
Back to the bosom of a speechless gain	C2
	-
V	V
	-
I cannot tell how long we joyous talked	V
For from my sense old time had vanished quite	V
Space dim remaining for onward still we walked	V
No sun arose to blot the pale still night	V
Still as the night of some great spongy stone	P
That turns but once an age betwixt the light	V
And the huge shadow from its own bulk thrown	P
And long as that to me before whose face	F
Visions so many slid and veils were blown	P
Aside from the vague vast of Isis' grace	F
Innumerous thoughts yet throng that infinite hour	B
And hopes which greater hopes unceasing chase	F
For I was all responsive to his power	B
I saw my friends weep wept and let them weep	D2
I saw the growth of each grief nurtured flower	B
I saw the gardener watching in their sleep	D2
Wiping their tears with the napkin he had laid	V
Wrapped by itself when he climbed Hades' steep	D2
What wonder then I saw nor was dismayed	V
I saw the dull degraded monsters nursed	V
In money marshes greedy men that preyed	V
Upon the helpless ground the feeblest worst	V
Yea all the human chaos wild and waste	V
Where he who will not leave what God hath cursed	V
Now fruitless wallows now is stung and chased	V
By visions lovely and by longings dire	B
But who believeth he shall not make haste	V
Even passing through the water and the fire	B
Or sad with memories of a better lot	V
He saved by hope for all men will desire	B
Knowing that God into a mustard jot	V
May shut an aeon give a world that lay	B
Wombed in its sun a molten unorbed clot	V
One moment from the red rim to spin away	B
Librating ages to roll on weary wheel	E2
Ere it turn homeward almost spent its day	B
Who knows love all time nothing he shall feel	E2
No anxious heart shall lift no trembling hand	V
Tender as air but clothed in triple steel	E2
He for his kind in every age and land	V
Hoping will live and to his labour bent	V
The Father's will shall doing understand	V
So spake my brother as we onward went	V
His words my heart received as corn the lea	V
And answered with a harvest of content	V
We came at last upon a lonesome sea	V
	-
VI	I
	-
And onward still he went I following	B2
Out on the water But the water lo	M
Like a thin sheet of glass lay vanishing	B2
The starry host in glorious twofold show	M
Looked up looked down The moment I saw this	F
A quivering fear thorough my heart did go	M
Unstayed I walked across a twin abyss	F
A hollow sphere of blue nor floor was found	V
Of questing eye only the foot met the kiss	F
Of the cool water lightly crisping round	V
The edges of the footsteps Terror froze	F
My fallen eyelids But again the sound	V
Of my guide's voice on the still air arose	F
Hast thou forgotten that we walk by faith	F2
For keenest sight but multiplies the shows	F
Lift up thine eyelids take a valiant breath	G2
Terrified dare the terror in God's name	H2
Step wider trust the invisible Can Death	G2
Avail no more to hearten up thy flame	H2
I trembled but I opened wide mine eyes	F
And strode on the invisible sea The same	H2
High moment vanished all my cowardice	F
And God was with me The well pleased stars	F
Threw quivering smiles across the gulfy skies	F
The white aurora flashed great scimitars	F
From north to zenith and again my guide	V
Full turned on me his face No prison bars	F
Latticed across a soul I there descried	V
No weather stains of grief quiet age long	I2
Brooded upon his forehead clear and wide	V
Yet from that face a pang shot vivid and strong	I2
Into my heart For though I saw him stand	V
Close to me in the void as one in a throng	I2
Yet on the border of some nameless land	V
He stood afar a still eyed mystery	V
Caught him whole worlds away Though in my hand	V
His hand I held and gazing earnestly	V
Searched in his countenance as in a mine	J2
For jewels of contentment satisfy	I
My heart I could not Seeming to divine	J2
My hidden trouble gently he stooped and kissed	V
My forehead and his arms did round me twine	J2
And held me to his bosom Still I missed	V
That ancient earthly nearness when we shared	V
One bed like birds that of no morrow wist	V
Roamed our one father's farm or later fared	V
Along the dusty highways of the old clime	H2
Backward he drew and as if he had bared	V
My soul stood reading there a little time	H2
While in his eyes tears gathered slow like dew	V
That dims the grass at evening or at prime	H2
But makes the stars clear goldener in the blue	V
And on his lips a faint ethereal smile	X
Hovered as hangs the mist of its own hue	V
Trembling about a purple flower the while	X
Evening grows brown Brother brother I cried	V
But straight outbursting tears my words beguile	X
And in my bosom all the utterance died	V
	-
VII	I
	-
A moment more he stood then softly sighed	V
I know thy pain but this sorrow is far	B
Beyond my help his voice at length replied	V
To my beseeching tears Look at yon star	B
Up from the low east half way all ablaze	F
Think'st thou because no cloud between doth mar	B
The liquid glory that from its visage rays	F
Thou therefore knowest that same world on high	I
Its people and its orders and its ways	F
What meanest thou I said Thou know'st that	V
Would hold not thy dear form but the self thee	V
Thou art not near me For thyself I cry	I
Not the less near that nearer I shall be	V
I have a world within thou dost not know	M
Would I could make thee know it but all of me	V
Is thine though thou not yet canst enter so	M
Into possession that betwixt us twain	C2
The frolic homeliness of love should flow	M
As o'er the brim of childhood's cup again	K2
Away the deeper childhood first must wipe	L2
That clouded consciousness which was our pain	C2
When in thy breast the godlike hath grown ripe	L2
And thou Christ's little one art ten times more	B
A child than when we played with drum and pipe	L2
About our earthly father's happy door	B
Then He ceased not his holy utterance still	M2
Flowing went on like spring from hidden store	B
Of wasteless waters but I wept my fill	M2
Nor heeded much the comfort of his speech	N2
At length he said When first I clomb the hill	M2
With earthly words I heavenly things would reach	N2
Where dwelleth now the man we used to call	Z
Father whose voice oh memory dear did teach	N2
Us in our beds when straight as once a stall	Z
Became a temple holy grew the room	H2
Prone on the ground before him I did fall	Z
So grand he towered above me like a doom	H2
But now I look into the well known face	F
Fearless yea basking blessed in the bloom	H2
Of his eternal youthfulness and grace	F
But something separates us yet I cried	V
Let light at least begin the dark to chase	F
The dark begin to waver and divide	V
And clear the path of vision In the old time	H2
When clouds one heart did from the other hide	V
A wind would blow between If I would climb	H2
This foot must rise ere that can go up higher	B
Some big A teach me of the eternal prime	H2
He answered me Hearts that to love aspire	B
Must learn its mighty harmony ere they can	O2
Give out one perfect note in its great quire	B
And thereto am I sent oh sent of one	W
Who makes the dumb for joy break out and sing	B2
He opens every door 'twixt man and man	O2
He to all inner chambers all will bring	B2
	-
VIII	I
	-
It was enough Hope waked from dreary swound	V
And Hope had ever been enough for me	V
To kennel driving grim Tomorrow's hound	V
From chains of school and mode she set me free	V
And urged my life to living On we went	V
Across the stars that underlay the sea	V
And came to a blown shore of sand and bent	V
Beyond the sand a marshy moor we crossed	V
Silent I for I pondered what he meant	V
And he that sacred speech might not be lost	V
And came at length upon an evil place	F
Trees lay about like a half buried host	V
Each in its desolate pool some fearful race	F
Of creatures was not far for howls and cries	F
And gurgling hisses rose With even pace	F
Walking Fear not he said for this way lies	F
Our journey On we went and soon the ground	V
Slow from the waste began a gentle rise	F
And tender grass in patches then all round	V
Came clouding up with its fresh homely tinge	P2
Of softest green cold flushing every mound	V
At length of lowly shrubs a scattered fringe	P2
And last a gloomy forest almost blind	V
For on its roof no sun ray did impinge	P2
So that its very leaves did share the mind	V
Of a brown shadowless day Not all the year	B
Once part its branches to let through a wind	V
But all day long the unmoving trees appear	B
To ponder on the past as men may do	V
That for the future wait without a fear	B
And in the past the coming present view	V
	-
IX	F
	-
I know not if for days many or few	V
Pathless we thrid the wood for never sun	W
Its sylvan traceried windows peeping through	V
Mottled with brighter green the mosses dun	W
Or meted with moving shadows Time the shade	V
No life was there not even a spider spun	W
At length we came into a sky roofed glade	V
An open level in a circle shut	V
By solemn trees that stood aside and made	V
Large room and lonely for a little hut	V
By grassy sweeps wide margined from the wood	V
'Twas built of saplings old that had been cut	V
When those great trees no larger by them stood	V
Thick with an ancient moss it seemed to have grown	P
Thus from the old brown earth a covert rude	V
Half house half grave half lifted up half prone	P
To its low door my brother led me There	B
Is thy first school he said there be thou shown	P
Thy pictured alphabet Wake a mind of prayer	B
And praying enter But wilt thou not come	H2
Brother I said No said he And I Where	B
Then shall I find thee Thou wilt not leave me dumb	H2
And a whole world of thoughts unuttered	V
With half sad smile and dewy eyes and some	H2
Conflicting motions of his kingly head	V
He pointed to the open standing door	B
I entered inward lo my shadow led	V
I turned his countenance shone like lightning hoar	B
Then slow he turned from me and parted slow	M
Like one unwilling whom I should see no more	B
With voice nor hand said Farewell I must go	M
But drew the clinging door hard to the post	V
No dry leaves rustled 'neath his going no	M
Footfalls came back from the departing ghost	V
He was no more I laid me down and wept	V
I dared not follow him restrained the most	V
By fear I should not see him if I leapt	V
Out after him with cries of pleading love	I
Close to the wall in hopeless loss I crept	V
There cool sleep came God's shadow from above	I
	-
X	F
	-
I woke with calmness cleansed and sanctified	V
The peace that filled my heart of old when I	I
Woke in my mother's lap for since I died	V
The past lay bare even to the dreaming shy	I
That shadowed my yet gathering unborn brain	C2
And marvelling on the floor I saw close by	I
My elbow pillowed head as if it had lain	C2
Beside me all the time I dreamless lay	B
A little pool of sunlight which did stain	C2
The earthen brown with gold marvelling I say	B
Because across the sea and through the wood	V
No sun had shone upon me all the way	B
I rose and through a chink the glade I viewed	V
But all was dull as it had always been	Q2
And sunless every tree top round it stood	V
With hardly light enough to show it green	R2
Yet through the broken roof serenely glad	V
By a rough hole entered that heavenly sheen	R2
Then I remembered in old years I had	V
Seen such a light where with dropt eyelids gloomed	V
Sitting on such a floor dark women sad	V
In a low barn like house where lay entombed	V
Their sires and children only there the door	B
Was open to the sun which entering plumed	V
With shadowy palms the stones that on the floor	B
Stood up like lidless chests again to find	V
That the soul needs no brain but keeps her store	B
In hidden chambers of the eternal mind	V
Thence backward ran my roused Memory	V
Down the ever opening vista back to blind	V
Anticipations while my soul did lie	I
Closed in my mother's forward thence through bright	V
Spring morns of childhood gay with hopes that fly	I
Bird like across their doming blue and white	V
To passionate summer noons to saddened eves	F
Of autumn rain so on to wintred night	V
Thence up once more to the dewy dawn that weaves	F
Saffron and gold weaves hope with still content	V
And wakes the worship that even wrong bereaves	F
Of half its pain And round her as she went	V
Hovered a sense as of an odour dear	B
Whose flower was far as of a letter sent	V
Not yet arrived a footstep coming near	B
But oh how long delayed the lifting latch	S2
As of a waiting sun ready to peer	B
Yet peering not as of a breathless watch	T2
Over a sleeping beauty babbling rime	H2
About her lips but no winged word to catch	S2
And here I lay the child of changeful Time	H2
Shut in the weary changeless Evermore	B
A dull eternal fadeless fruitless clime	H2
Was this the dungeon of my sinning sore	B
A gentle hell of loneliness foredoomed	V
For such as I whose love was yet the core	B
Of all my being The brown shadow gloomed	V
Persistent faded warm No ripple ran	O2
Across the air no roaming insect boomed	V
Alas I cried I am no living man	O2
Better were darkness and the leave to grope	U2
Than light that builds its own drear prison Can	O2
This be the folding of the wings of Hope	U2
	-
XI	F
	-
That instant through the branches overhead	V
No sound of going went a shadow fell	O
Isled in the unrippled pool of sunlight fed	V
From some far fountain hid in heavenly dell	O
I looked and in the low roofs broken place	F
A single snowdrop stood a radiant bell	O
Of silvery shine softly subdued by grace	F
Of delicate green that made the white appear	B
Yet whiter Blind it bowed its head a space	F
Half timid then as in despite of fear	B
Unfolded its three rays If it had swung	V2
Its pendent bell and music golden clear	B
Division just entrancing sounds among	V2
Had flickered down as tender as flakes of snow	M
It had not shed more influence as it rung	V2
Than from its look alone did rain and flow	M
I knew the flower perceived its human ways	F
Dim saw the secret that had made it grow	M
My heart supplied the music's golden phrase	F
Light from the dark and snowdrops from the earth	W2
Life's resurrection out of gross decays	F
The endless round of beauty's yearly birth	W2
And nations' rise and fall were in the flower	B
And read themselves in silence Heavenly mirth	W2
Awoke in my sad heart For one whole hour	B
I praised the God of snowdrops But at height	V
The bliss gave way Next faith began to cower	B
And then the snowdrop vanished from my sight	V
	-
XII	F
	-
Last I began in unbelief to say	F
No angel this a snowdrop nothing more	B
A trifle which God's hands drew forth in play	F
From the tangled pond of chaos dank and frore	B
Threw on the bank and left blindly to breed	V
A wilful fancy would have gathered store	B
Of evanescence from the pretty weed	V
White shapely then divine Conclusion lame	H2
O'erdriven into the shelter of a creed	V
Not out of God but nothingness it came	H2
Colourless feeble flying from life's heat	V
It has no honour hardly shunning shame	H2
When see another shadow at my feet	V
Hopeless I lifted now my weary head	V
Why mock me with another heavenly cheat	V
A primrose fair from its rough blanketed bed	V
Laughed lo my unbelief to heavenly scorn	N
A sun child just awake no prayer yet said	V
Half rising from the couch where it was born	N
And smiling to the world I breathed again	K2
Out of the midnight once more dawned the morn	N
And fled the phantom Doubt with all his train	C2
	-
XIII	F
	-
I was a child once more nor pondered life	I
Thought not of what or how much All my soul	Y
With sudden births of lovely things grew rife	I
In peeps a daisy on the instant roll	Y
Rich lawny fields with red tips crowding the green	R2
Across the hollows over ridge and knoll	Y
To where the rosy sun goes down serene	R2
From out of heaven in looks a pimpernel	Y
I walk in morning scents of thyme and bean	R2
Dewdrops on every stalk and bud and bell	Y
Flash like a jewel orchard many roods	F
Glow ruby suns which emerald suns would quell	Y
Topaz saint glories sapphire beatitudes	F
Blaze in the slanting sunshine all around	V
Above the high priest lark o'er fields and woods	F
Rich hearted with his five eggs on the ground	V
The sacrifice bore through the veil of light	V
Odour and colour offering up in sound	V
Filled heart full thus with forms of lowly might	V
And shapeful silences of lovely lore	B
I sat a child happy with only sight	V
And for a time I needed nothing more	B
	-
XIV	I
	-
Supine to the revelation I did lie	Y
Passive as prophet to his dreaming deep	D2
Or harp Aeolian to the breathing sky	Y
And blest as any child whom twilight sleep	D2
Holds half and half lets go But the new day	F
Of higher need up dawned with sudden leap	D2
Ah flowers I said ye are divinely gay	F
But your fair music is too far and fine	J2
Ye are full cups yet reach not to allay	F
The drought of those for human love who pine	J2
As the hart for water brooks At once a face	F
Was looking in my face its eyes through mine	J2
Were feeding me with tenderness and grace	F
And by their love I knew my mother's eyes	F
Gazing in them there grew in me apace	F
A longing grief and love did swell and rise	F
Till weeping I brake out and did bemoan	P
My blameful share in bygone tears and cries	F
O mother wilt thou plead for me I groan	P
I say not plead with Christ but plead with those	F
Who gathered now in peace about his throne	P
Were near me when my heart was full of throes	F
And longings vain alter a flying bliss	F
Which oft the fountain by the threshold froze	F
They must forgive me mother Tell them this	F
No more shall swell the love dividing sigh	Y
Down at their feet I lay my selfishness	F
The face grew passionate at this my cry	Y
The gathering tears up to its eyebrims rose	F
It grew a trembling mist that did not fly	Y
But slow dissolved I wept as one of those	F
Who wake outside the garden of their dream	H2
And lo the droop winged hours laborious close	F
Its opal gates with stone and stake and beam	H2
	-
XV	Y
	-
But glory went that glory more might come	H2
Behold a countless multitude no less	F
A host of faces me besieging dumb	H2
In the lone castle of my mournfulness	F
Had then my mother given the word I sent	V
Gathering my dear ones from the shining press	F
And had these others their love aidance lent	V
For full assurance of the pardon prayed	V
Would they concentre love with sweet intent	V
On my self love to blast the evil shade	V
Ah perfect vision pledge of endless hope	U2
Oh army of the holy spirit arrayed	V
In comfort's panoply For words I grope	U2
For clouds to catch your radiant dawn my own	P
And tell your coming From the highest cope	U2
Of blue down to my roof breach came a cone	P
Of faces and their eyes on love's will borne	N
Bright heads down bending like the forward blown	P
Heavy with ripeness golden ears of corn	N
By gentle wind on crowded harvest field	V
All gazing toward my prison hut forlorn	N
As if with power of eyes they would have healed	V
My troubled heart making it like their own	P
In which the bitter fountain had been sealed	V
And the life giving water flowed alone	P
	-
XVI	Y
	-
With what I thus beheld glorified then	K2
God let me love my fill and pass I sighed	V
And dead for love had almost died again	K2
O fathers brothers I am yours I cried	V
O mothers sisters I am nothing now	X2
Save as I am yours and in you sanctified	V
O men O women of the peaceful brow	X2
And infinite abysses in the eyes	F
Whence God's ineffable gazes on me how	X2
Care ye for me impassioned and unwise	F
Oh ever draw my heart out after you	V
Ever O grandeur thus before me rise	F
And I need nothing not even for love will sue	V
I am no more and love is all in all	Y
Henceforth there is there can be nothing new	V
All things are always new Then like the fall	Y
Of a steep avalanche my joy fell steep	D2
Up in my spirit rose as it were the call	Y
Of an old sorrow from an ancient deep	D2
For with my eyes fixed on the eyes of him	H2
Whom I had loved before I learned to creep	D2
God's vicar in his twilight nursery dim	H2
To gather us to the higher father's knee	F
I saw a something fill their azure rim	H2
That caught him worlds and years away from me	F
And like a javelin once more through me passed	V
The pang that pierced me walking on the sea	F
O saints I cried must loss be still the last	V
	-
XVII	Y
	-
When I said this the cloud of witnesses	F
Turned their heads sideways and the cloud grew dim	H2
I saw their faces half but now their bliss	F
Gleamed low like the old moon in the new moon's rim	H2
Then as I gazed a better kind of light	V
On every outline 'gan to glimmer and swim	H2
Faint as the young moon threadlike on the night	V
Just born of sunbeams trembling on her edge	Y2
'Twas a great cluster of profiles in sharp white	V
Had some far dawn begun to drive a wedge	Y2
Into the night and cleave the clinging dark	Z2
I saw no moon or star token or pledge	Y2
Of light save that manifold silvery mark	Z2
The shining title of each spirit book	A3
Whence came that light Sudden as if a spark	Z2
Of vital touch had found some hidden nook	A3
Where germs of potent harmonies lay prest	V
And their outbursting life old Aether shook	A3
Rose as in prayer to lingering promised guest	V
From that great cone of faces such a song	I2
Instinct with hope's harmonical unrest	V
That with sore weeping and the cry How long	I2
I bore my part because I could not sing	B2
And as they sang the light more clear and strong	I2
Bordered their faces till the glory sting	B2
I could almost no more encounter and bear	B
Light from their eyes like water from a spring	B2
Flowed on their foreheads reigned their flashing hair	B
I saw the light from eyes I could not see	F
He comes he comes they sang comes to our prayer	B
Oh my poor heart if only it were He	F
I cried Thereat the faces moved those eyes	F
Were turning on me In rushed ecstasy	F
And woke me to the light of lower skies	F
	-
XVIII	Y
	-
What matter said I whether clank of chain	C2
Or over bliss wakes up to bitterness	F
Stung with its loss I called the vision vain	C2
Yet feeling life grown larger suffering less	F
Sleep's ashes from my eyelids I did brush	B3
The room was veiled that morning should not press	F
Upon the slumber which had stayed the rush	B3
Of ebbing life I looked into the gloom	H2
Upon her brow the dawn's first grayest flush	B3
And on her cheek pale hope's reviving bloom	H2
Sat patient watcher darkling and alone	P
She who had lifted me from many a tomb	H2
One then was left me of Love's radiant cone	P
Its light on her dear face though faint and wan	C3
Was shining yet a dawn upon it thrown	P
From the far coming of the Son of Man	O2
	-
XIX	F
	-
In every forehead now I see a sky	Y
Catching the dawn I hear the wintriest breeze	F
About me blow the news the Lord is nigh	Y
Long is the night dark are the polar seas	F
Yet slanting suns ascend the northern hill	Y
Round Spring's own steps the oozy waters freeze	F
But hold them not Dreamers are sleeping still	Y
But labourers light stung from their slumber start	V
Faith sees the ripening ears with harvest fill	Y
When but green blades the clinging earth clods part	V
	-
XX	F
	-
Lord I have spoken a poor parable	Y
In which I would have said thy name alone	P
Is the one secret lying in Truth's well	Y
Thy voice the hidden charm in every tone	P
Thy face the heart of every flower on earth	W2
Its vision the one hope for every moan	P
Thy love the cure O sharer of the birth	W2
Of little children seated on thy knee	F
O human God I laugh with sacred mirth	W2
To think how all the laden shall go free	F
For though the vision tarry in healing ruth	D3
One morn the eyes that shone in Galilee	F
Will dawn upon them full of grace and truth	D3
And thy own love the vivifying core	B
Of every love in heart of age or youth	D3
Of every hope that sank 'neath burden sore	B

George Macdonald

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