Songs of the Spirit

From all the caverns of the hollow sea, And all the fortresses that guard the air, And all the fearful palaces of fire, And all the earth’s dwarf-ridden secrecy, They come, they gather, and they ride, to bear Destruction and disorder and desire ; They cling to him who braves the gale of night, And mock his might ; They rush upon him like a wave, and break In fiery foam against him, and they shake 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