ORPHEUS
All we are shapen fair
In many forms of grace,
But change is everywhere,
And time is all our share
And all the ways of space.
One lives an hour of day;
One even man’s life exceeds;
One loves to chase and slay;
One loves to sing and play;
Each soul to his own deeds !
A share of joy is ours,
A double share of grief;
So sum the many hours
In many hopes and powers,
All powers except the chief.
Emotion fills our souls,
And love delights us well,
And joy of sense full rolls ;
But leads us, and controls
Life’s céntral citadel.
Whence we were drawn who knows?
Of law or Gods or chance?
But, as life’s river flows,
What Sea shall clasp and close
Beyond }lind circumstance?
Such little power we own
Of vague experience,
And instinct to enthrone
The life’s mere needs alone,
Nor answer © why” and ‘‘ whence.”
Nor wandering in the night
Our minds may apprehend
Reflecting in pure light
Of soul, what sound or sight
May lead us to some end.
We hear the dim sound roll
From distant mountains drawn,
We follow, but no soul
Guesses that silver goal,
The sunset or the dawn.
The lyre entices fast
Our willing feet and wings,
We wonder from the past
What spell is overcast
From off the sonant strings.
Awhile we deem our mates
Are calling through the wood ;
Awhile the tune creates
These unfamiliar states
Of thinking solitude.
Awhile we gather clear
A note of promise swell,
A song of fate and fear,
Assuring us who hear
Of other shapes to dwell.
A promise vast and grand
As is the spangled sky !
We dimly understand ;
We join the following band
Of dancing greenery !
We see all Nature bend
To high Olympus’ hill.
Our tunes we choose and send;
We follow to the end,
O Orpheus, all thy will.
Our little love and hate,
Our hunger and our fear,
Pass to a solemn state
Pregnant with hope and fate.
O Orpheus, we are here!
THE EARTH.
Life hidden in death,
Life shrined in the soul,
Life bright for his breath,
Life dark for his goal,
I am Mother, and Burier, and Friend—
Look thou to the end!