Collected Works (Vol. I)

SONGS OF THE SPIRIT.+ 1898. SONGS OF THE SPIRIT. ‘¢ A fool also is full of words.” Ecclesiastes. DEDICATION To J. L. BAKER. THE vault of purple that I strove To pierce, and find unchanging love, Or some vast countenance! above All glory of the soul of man, Baffled my blind aspiring gaze With sunlight’s melancholy rays, And closed with iron hand the ways That sunder space, divide the days with fiery fan. Thine was the forehead mild and grave That shone throughout the azure nave Where Monte Rosa’s silence gave The starry organ’s measured sound. Where for an altar stood the bare Mass of Mont Cervin,” towering there; And angels dwelt upon the stair, And all the mountains were aware that stood around. Thine was the passionless divine High hope, and the pure purpose thine, Higher and purer than stars shine, And thine the unexpressed delight To hold high commune with the wind That sings, in midnight black and blind, Strange chants, the murmurs of the mind, To grasp the hands of heaven and find the lords of light. 1 The supreme Deity is shadowed by Qaba- lists in this glyph. See Appendix, ‘* Qabalistic | dogma,”’ for a synthesized explanation of this ! entire philosophy. | 2 Commonty known as the Matterhorn. * In this volume and throughout Crowlcy’s Mine was the holy fire that drew Its perfect passion from the dew, And all the flowers that blushed and blew On sunny slopes by little brooks. Mine the desire that brushed aside The thorns, and would not be denied, And sought, more eager than a bride, The cold grey secrets wan and wide of sacred books. Thine was the hand that guided me By moor and mountain, vale and lea, And led me to the sudden sea That lies superb, remote, and deep, Showed me things wonderful, unbound The fetters that beset me round, Opened my waking ear to sound That may not by a man be found, except in sleep. Thy presence was as subtle flame Burning in dawny groves; thy name Like dew upon the hills became, And all thy mind a star most bright ; And, following with wakeful eyes The strait meridian of the wise, My feet tread under stars and skies3 My spirit soars and seeks and flies, a child of light. Thus cager, may my purpose stand Firm as the faith of honest hand, Nor change like castles built of sand Unuil the sweet unchanging end. Happy not only that my eye Single and strong may win the sky, But that one day the birds that fly Heard your fair friendship call me by the name of friend. works the visions, ordeals, cte., are, as a rule, not efforts of imagination, but records of (subjective) fact. 2Q