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Page 1 of 11898 · PDF PAGE 101
VESPERS. THE incense steams before the Christ, It wraps His feet with grey, A perfumed melancholy mist, Tears sacred from the day ; And awe, a holiness, I wist, More sweet than man may say. I bend my head to kiss the brow, Scarred and serene and wide, The bosom and the loin-cloth now And where the blood has dried, The blood whose purple tide doth flow From out the smitten side. The fragrance of his skin begets Desire of holy things ; 91
1898 · PDF PAGE 19
…een, Became. Like dew a triple queen Shone as the void uncovered : The silence of deep height was drawn A veil across the silver dawn On holy wings that hovered. The music of three thoughts became The beauty, that is one white flame, The justice that surpasses shame, The victory, the splendour, The sacred fountain that is whirled From depths beyond that older world A new world to engender. The kingdom is extended. Night Dwells, and I contemplate the sight 9
1898 · PDF PAGE 95
…ncouraged, lightened, Sent on the Way Whose Sun and Star have brightened From dawning into day, I set my face, a flint, Toward where the holy glint Of lamps affords the hint That leads me—where it may. 85
1898 · PDF PAGE 99
…en gold And secret might ; Because my forehead bears the sacred name, And my lips bear the brand Of Him whose heaven is one flame, Whose holy hand Gathers this earth, who built the vaults of space, Moulded the stars, and fixed the iron sea, Because His love lights through my face And all of me. Because my hand may fasten on the sword If my heart falter not, and smite Those lampless limits most abhorred Of iron night, 89
1898 · PDF PAGE 72
To set snares, by night, and makes afraid The spirits’ holy might with one slight maid Visioned and unsubsisting save in foreign thought, To its own strength a slave by witchcraft brought ! This is not Love but Lust, not Life but Death is found, All the halls of sense with strife cry and resound. The Brain awakes in wrath ; behold ! the foemen flee, All the earth is clad with gold and all the sea ; Driven back the demons yield, falter and cease ; For a little while the shield of sleep is peace. Clear and bright the lamp burns ; clean and sharp …
1898 · PDF PAGE 104
My rapt eyes grow more eager now, God smites within the host, White fires illuminate my brow Lit of the Holy Ghost ; I see the angel figures bow On heaven’s silent coast. Eternity, a wheel of light, And Time, a fleece of snow, I saw, and deep beyond the night, The steady mystic glow Of that lamp’s flame unearthly bright That watches Earth below. Long avenues of sleepy trees And bowers arched with love, And kisses woven for a breeze, And lips that scarcely move, Save as long ripples on the seas, That murmur like a dove. I saw the burning lips of…
1898 · PDF PAGE 75
…ings her bright arms to meet her spouse home- ward who hasteneth ; He trims his lamp, and brings The books of many kings To spread their holy wings About his head, and sing to him the secret ways of death. His eyes are fixed, he sees Men dimly, like to trees Walking, and guesses they must be the angels of the Lord ; His hand is strong to hold The talent of fine gold, The wand so clean and cold ; His altar has a lamp divine, his girdle has a sword. 65
1898 · PDF PAGE 105
I saw the Christ, with fire shod, Walk through the holy place, And the lilies rosier where he trod, Blushed for a little space. I saw myself, and still I sang With lips in clearer tune, Like to the nightingale’s that rang Through all those nights of June ; Such nights when stars in slumber hang Beneath the quiet moon. Still, in those avenues of light, No maid, with golden zone, And lily garment that from sight Half hides the ivory throne, Lay in my arms the livelong night To call my soul her own. The Christ’s cold lips my lips did taste On Time…
1898 · PDF PAGE 20
That is not seeing, but the light That secretly is kindled, Though oft time its most holy fire Lacks oil, whene’er my own Desire Before desire has dwindled. I see the thin web binding me With thirteen cords of unity Toward the calm centre of the sea. (O thou supernal mother !) The triple light my path divides To twain and fifty sudden 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 li…
1898 · PDF PAGE 113
…d floated up, an incense-breathing bird, With songs half heard Before the throne of God. Even so this life Of sordid strife Is made most holy, beautiful, and pure, By this desire, if this desire endure. So to the altar of the Highest aspire Those souls whose fire Has on it cast one grain of pure incense, (Who guesses—whence ?) Those souls that cast their trammels off, and spring On eager wing, 103
1898 · PDF PAGE 6
…idnight 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 the sudden sea That lies superb, remot…
1898 · PDF PAGE 85
…and tore him Limb from wet limb, and devoured, and bore this stained soul into space Far from the regions of hope and the lands that are holy with grace. Alway the battle proceeds and alway the tempest re-quickens, Pregnant with thunder, delivered when the swift knife is let flash ; Alway the wind has its will and the slaughter-steam rises and thickens, Alway the sea is a lion, enraged by the wind and its lash, Alway the heavens resound with the thunder’s unchangeable crash. Heaven has conquered, behold ! and the hosts of the demons are fleeing…
1898 · PDF PAGE 52
… fight the air, he sneers, and lies, And laughs at all this agony of mine, And chills my heart, and desecrates the shrine Where Love his holy incense used to burn, And mocks those thoughts, those songs, those looks divine 42
1898 · PDF PAGE 54
…er birth. I left thy shores, blue stream, at His command Who reared the mountains from the shaken earth ; Who holds the lightning in His holy hand, And binds the stars in adamantine band, And yearns towards the children of His mind. I left their summer and their dewy strand To pass a life of work, alone, unkind, To fight a way toward heaven, mute, desolate and blind. The dusty desert glimmers in the night, A solitary palm-tree shades the well ; I am alone, a weary eremite Striving the secrets of the stars to tell, And every blade of grass that …
1898 · PDF PAGE 79
…e Life in its citadel, They open Hell To let the Furies and the Fates spring forth On their wild chargers of the icy North To quench the holy lamp. His spirit and his life within him quail, And all the armaments of sin assail With deadly tramp, And swordless fury that devours and bites And tears and clutches him, whom heavenly lights Shield and lead on afar, Where beyond storm and passion is the sky, And where the sacred hand of the Most High 69
1898 · PDF PAGE 63
…the last word said ; Turn my back resolute on dung and dross, And face the future with no twitch of dread, But dare to converse with the holy dead, And taste the earnest of the church’s bliss. Love, God be with you ! He is overhead And watches us, that nothing be amiss— Love ! our hearts bleed as one in the last lingering kiss. 53
1898 · PDF PAGE 55
…t blue ; And by it stands, as patient and as true As in the past, his form to whom I turn, And break my bondage and would touch anew His holy lips ; my body and spirit yearn ; He fades away, and fires of Hell within me burn. Still, as I journey through the waste, I see A silver figure more divine arise ; The Christ usurps the horizon for me, And He requickens the forgotten skies ; His golden locks are burning on my eyes, And He with rosy finger points the way, The blood-wrought mystic path of Paradise That leads at last through yonder icy spray…
1898 · PDF PAGE 71
…r for wicked breath, And no angel warns the ear that this is death ? Is this fiend the Love that came when youth rose up Purple with its holy flame, and flower-fair cup, Gave me of his burning wine to fire my heart, Filled me with desires divine toward my art ? Is he then the Love who robs me of my aim, Doubts me if my heart still throbs with that cold flame, Calm and eager purpose yet to reach the goal That high hopes have sternly set before my soul, To know, will, dare for man’s sake if man may, Grasp the secret of the plans that rule the way…