Collected Works (Vol. I)

46 SONGS OF THE SPIRIT 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 ! NIGHTFALL. THE seas that lap the sand Where lilies fill the land Are silent, while the moon ascends to span the curvéd leaves. The lordly stars arise With pity in their eyes So large and clear and wise, And angels yearn toward the world that wonders, wakes, and grieves. Sleep holds the hand of life, And, as a loving wife Moves not for fear the sufferer should wake before his hour, So sleep is deadly calm, And fills with perfect balm The night’s unquiet psalm That wanders all too trembling up, and quivers as a flower. ‘The wise man opens wide His casement, as a bride Flings her bright arms to meet her spouse homeward 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. Iie knows, and doth not fear; His will is keen and clear ; Ilis lips are silent to protect the secret mysteries. No tempter spreads his net So that his thoughts forget The glory they have set Before their face, nor loose their hold upon the perfect prize. My hands no longer write: Communion with the night Is built, a bridge of fiery truth across the subtle mind. 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. THE INITIATION. THERE is a bare bleak headland which the sea Incessantly devours, A rock impregnable, where herb and tree Are not. A vision of it came to me In night’s most ghastly hours. I who desire, beyond all named desire, To pass the envious bounds of air and fire, And penetrate the bosom of the night, Saw in a vision such a neophyte Stand on the forehead of the rock ; I saw The armies of unalterable law Shudder within their spheres, as to him came His master’s spirit, like a tongue of flame, To touch his lips and ears and eyes and hands With that pale amber that divides the lands Of sense and spirit, and beheld him quail As fell from all his shaken soul the veil. Then on the night began the awful gale That did assume a voice Whereat the air was peopled with such forms As ride abroad upon the path of storms, And in the awe rejoice. They gather, chanting, round that noble head. The master of the prisons of the dead Loosens the bonds and bids the furies spring For their last struggle ere they own a kiny. This pzean of the sky they sing.