II. Then all things look strange in the pure golden æther; And as loud as the birds, sing the bloom-loving bees, And the world is complete. Now, God bless the child,-father, mother, respond! O Life, O Beyond, Thou art strange, thou art sweet. III. Then we leap on the earth with the armour of youth, And the earth rings again; And we breathe out, 'O beauty!' we cry out, 'O truth!' And the bloom of our lips drops with wine, And our blood runs amazed 'neath the calm hyaline; The earth cleaves to the foot, the sun burns to the brain, What is this exultation? and what this despair ?—The strong pleasure is smiting the nerves into pain, And we drop from the Fair as we climb to the Fair, And we lie in a trance at its feet; And the breath of an angel cold-piercing the air Breathes fresh on our faces in swoon, And we think him so near he is this side the sun, VOL. III. D And we wake to a whisper self-murmured and fond, O Life, O Beyond, Thou art strange, thou art sweet! IV. And the winds and the waters in pastoral measures And we run with the stag, and we leap with the horse, course, And we strike with the falcon, and hunt with the hound, And we bind the rose-garland on forehead and ears And the dew of the roses that runneth unblamed Down our cheeks, is not taken for tears. Help us, God! trust us, man, love us, woman! 'I hold Thy small head in my hands,—with its grapelets of gold Growing bright through my fingers,-like altar for oath, 'Neath the vast golden spaces like witnessing faces That watch the eternity strong in the trothI love thee, I leave thee, Live for thee, die for thee! I prove thee, deceive thee, Undo evermore thee! Help me, God! slay me, man!-one is mourning for both.' And death is so nigh us, life cools from its heat. Art thou fair, art thou sweet? V. Then we act to a purpose, we spring up erect: In a purple sublimity, And grind down men's bones To a pale unanimity. Speed me, God! serve me, man! I am god over men ; When I speak in my cloud, none shall answer again; 'Neath the stripe and the bond, Lie and mourn at my feet!' O Life, O Beyond, Thou art strange, thou art sweet! VI. Then we grow into thought, and with inward ascensions We lie in the dark here, swathed doubly around Are aware that a Hades rolls deep on all sides About and above us,-until the strong arch Of our life creaks and bends as if ready for falling, And through the dim rolling we hear the sweet calling Of spirits that speak in a soft under-tongue The sense of the mystical march: And we cry to them softly,' Come nearer, come nearer And lift up the lap of this dark, and speak clearer, And teach us the song that ye sung!' And we smile in our thought as they answer or no, And we ask not their name; Of the world's prison-place; And we sing back the songs as we guess them, aloud, And we send up the lark of our music that cuts Untired through the cloud To beat with its wings at the lattice Heaven shuts; Yet the angels look down and the mortals look up As the little wings beat, And the poet is blessed with their pity or hope. 'Twixt the heavens and the earth can a poet despond? O Life, O Beyond, Thou art strange, thou art sweet! VII. Then we wring from our souls their applicative strength, Hold the cup we have filled, to their uses at length. Of the ease of another's!' From the fire and the water we drive out the steam With a rush and a roar and the speed of a dream; And the car without horses, the car without wings, Roars onward and flies On its grey iron edge 'Neath the heat of a Thought sitting still in our eyes: Of the souls of our brothers, |