1898 · PDF PAGE 114
Songs of the Spirit
Immaculate, new-born, toward the sky, And shall not die Until they cleave at last the lampless dome, And lose their tent because they find their home. 104
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Page 1 of 11898 · PDF PAGE 23
Songs of the Spirit
…mplate myself in that dim sphere Whose hollow centre I am standing at With burning eyes intent to penetrate The black circumference, and find out God— And only see myself. The walls of Space Mock me with silence. What is Life ? The stars Are silent. O ye matchless ministers That daily pass in your appointed ways To reach—we know not what ! How meaningless Your bright assemblage and your steady task Of doubtful motion. And the soul of man Grapples in death-pangs with your mystery, And fails to wrestle down the hard embrace That grips the thighs …
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1898 · PDF PAGE 24
Songs of the Spirit
Sufficient to beat back the waves of doubt, To pierce the void, and grasp the glorious, To find out Truth ? Would God it might be so, Since here is nothing for the soul to love Or cling to beyond self. My chamberlain Once showed me a pet slave, dwarf, savage, black, A vile, lewd creature, who would cast a staff Far wheeling through the air, and suddenly Break its swift course, and curving rapidly Come hard upon himself who threw. Even so These vile deformities—our souls—cast forth Missiles of thought, and seek to reach some end With swift imagi…
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1898 · PDF PAGE 73
Songs of the Spirit
… come to me Rest ? By these suppressed Desires my soul must flee, By heaven’s crest, I pray that secretly Toward God’s breast I draw, to find, maybe, Rest ! 63
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1898 · PDF PAGE 76
Songs of the Spirit
…God’s angels, and His fire, Consume the soul’s desire, And strike a lighter lyre. I seek ; the angels lead me on, all light and truth to find. 66
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1898 · PDF PAGE 5
Songs of the Spirit
DEDICATION TO J. L. B. 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 shown 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, …
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1898 · PDF PAGE 70
Songs of the Spirit
SUCCUBUS. WHO is Love, that he should find me as I strive, Pale and weary, dumb and blind, where curses thrive, Fold my sleep within his wings, and lead my dreams Through a land of pleasant things, of woods and streams, Bind my slumber with a chain of pure delight, Though the canker of it stain at death of night, Fill with passion and distaste and wakened pleasure All the moments run to waste that else were treasure ? Who is Love ? a fury red with all men’s blood On his cruel altars shed, a deadly flood ? Or a veiléd vision black with shame and…
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1898 · PDF PAGE 20
Songs of the Spirit
… sides Each perfect as each other. Now backwards, inwards still my mind Must track the intangible and blind, And seeking, shall securely find Hidden in secret places Fresh feasts for every soul that strives, New life for many mystic lives, And strange new forms and faces. My mind still searches, and attains By many days and many pains 10
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1898 · PDF PAGE 29
Songs of the Spirit
… tender for the day, Are dazed with sunlight, and poor fingers grope For those far truths that mock our vague en- deavour, Whilst we may find in thee the secrets grey Of all things God would fain have hid for ever. 19
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1898 · PDF PAGE 6
Songs of the Spirit
…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. 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 …
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1898 · PDF PAGE 39
Songs of the Spirit
Half guide, half tempter toward the stream of error, On whose fresh bosom many a mariner Puts out with silken sail—to find his grave In its voluptuous wave. Here are few rocks whereon a ship hath peril ; No storms may ruffle its insidious stream ; Only, no fish invade its waters sterile, No white-winged birds above it glance and gleam, Only, it hath no shore, no wave, but gloom Wraps it within her womb. No sun is mirrored in its treacherous water, Only the false moon flickers and flits by Like to the bloodless phantom shape of slaughter Laughin…
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1898 · PDF PAGE 56
Songs of the Spirit
… ! have Thou pity soon on this amazing pain. If but a lion stirred with distant roar The silence of the world, perchance at last I might find honey in his mouth, and store His tawny flanks until the sand were past. Nay, but these wastes intolerably vast, Like glowing copper raging for the heat, Stretch and stretch on and leave me all aghast 46
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1898 · PDF PAGE 59
Songs of the Spirit
… is Me ! My feet, in spite of me, in circles bend ; I meet my own tracks often, all in vain I seek some tower or cliff to make an end, I find no object on the distant plain ; Misty distortions crowd upon my brain, And spectre fountains gurgle on the ground ; I drop to drink, and hear the horrid strain Of chuckling devils, that grimace around, And think I catch the note of Hell’s three-headed Hound. 49
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