A Hidden Life and Other Poems Part 29

Foolish man, what sort of hues Would you have to paint the East, When each hill and valley lies Hungering for the sun to rise?

'Tis an opening that I want; Let the light in, that is all; Needful knowledge it will grant.

How to frame the window tall.

Who at morning ever lies Thinking how to ope his eyes?

This room's eyelids I will ope, Make a morning as I may; 'Tis the time for work and hope; Night is waning near the day.

I bethink me, workman priest; It were best to pierce the wall Where the thickness is the least-- Nearer there the light-beams fall, Sooner with our dark to mix-- That niche where stands the Crucifix.

"The Crucifix! what! impious task!

Wilt thou break into its shrine?

Taint with human the Divine?"

Friend, did G.o.dhead wear a mask Of the human? or did it Choose a form for G.o.dhead fit?

[Sidenote: _The form must yield to the Truth._]

Brother with the rugged crown Won by being all divine, This my form may come to Thine: Gently thus I lift Thee down; Lovingly, O marble cold, Thee with human hands I fold, And I set Thee thus aside, Human rightly deified!

G.o.d, by manhood glorified!

[Sidenote: _Nothing less than the Cross would satisfy the G.o.dhead for its own a.s.sertion and vindication._]

Thinkest thou that Christ did stand Shutting G.o.d from out the land?

Hiding from His children's eyes Dayspring in the holy skies?

Stood He not with loving eye On one side, to bring us nigh?

"Doth this form offend you still?

G.o.d is greater than you see; If you seek to do His will, He will lead you unto me."

Then the tender Brother's grace Leads us to the Father's face.

As His parting form withdrew, Burst His Spirit on the view.

Form completest, radiant white, Sometimes must give way for light, When the eye, itself obscure, Stead of form is needing cure: Washed at morning's sunny brim From the mists that make it dim, Set thou up the form again, And its light will reach the brain.

For the Truth is Form allowed, For the glory is the cloud; But the single eye alone Sees with light that is its own, From primeval fountain-head Flowing ere the sun was made; Such alone can be regaled With the Truth by form unveiled; To such an eye his form will be Gus.h.i.+ng orb of glory free.

[Sidenote: _Striving_.]

Stroke on stroke! The frescoed plaster Clashes downward, fast and faster.

Now the first stone disengages; Now a second that for ages Bested there as in a rock Yields to the repeated shock.

Hark! I heard an outside stone Down the rough rock rumbling thrown!

[Sidenote: _Longing_.]

Haste thee, haste! I am athirst To behold young Morning, nurst In the lap of ancient Night, Growing visibly to light.

There! thank G.o.d! a faint light-beam!

There! G.o.d bless that little stream Of cool morning air that made A rippling on my burning head!

[Sidenote: _Alive unto G.o.d._]

Now! the stone is outward flung, And the Universe hath sprung Inward on my soul and brain!

[Sidenote: _A New Life_.]

I am living once again!

Out of sorrow, out of strife, Spring aloft to higher life; Parted by no awful cleft From the life that I have left; Only I myself grown purer See its good so much the surer, See its ill with hopeful eye, Frown more seldom, oftener sigh.

Dying truly is no loss, For to wings hath grown the cross.

Dear the pain of giving up, If Christ enter in and sup.

Joy to empty all the heart, That there may be room for Him!

Faintness cometh, soon to part, For He fills me to the brim.

I have all things now and more; All that I possessed before; In a calmer holier sense, Free from vanity's pretence; And a consciousness of bliss, Wholly mine, by being His.

I am nearer to the end Whither all my longings tend.

His love in all the bliss I had, Unknown, was that which made me glad; And will s.h.i.+ne with glory more, In the forms it took before.

[Sidenote: _Beauty returned with Truth._]

Lo! the eastern vapours crack With the suns.h.i.+ne at their back!

Lo! the eastern glaciers s.h.i.+ne In the dazzling light divine!

Lo! the far-off mountains lifting Snow-capt summits in the sky!

Where all night the storm was drifting, Whiteness resteth silently!

Glorious mountains! G.o.d's own places!

Surely man upon their faces Climbeth upward nearer Thee Dwelling in Light's Obscurity!

Mystic wonders! hope and fear Move together at your sight.

[Sidenote: _Silence and Thought._]

That one precipice, whose height I can mete by inches here, Is a thousand fathoms quite.

I must journey to your foot, Grow on you as on my root; Feed upon your silent speech, Awful air, and wind, and thunder, Shades, and solitudes, and wonder;

[Sidenote: _The Realities of existence must seize on his soul_.]

Distances that lengthening roll Onward, on, beyond Thought's reach, Widening, widening on the view; Till the silence touch my soul, Growing calm and vast like you.

I will meet Christ on the mountains; Dwell there with my G.o.d and Truth;

[Sidenote: _Baptism_.]

Drink cold water from their fountains, Baptism of an inward youth.

Then return when years are by, To teach a great humility;

[Sidenote: _Future mission_.]

To aspiring youth to show What a hope to them is given: Heaven and Earth at one to know; On the Earth to live in Heaven; Winning thus the hearts of Earth To die into the Heavenly Birth.

EARLY POEMS.

LONGING.

Away from the city's herds!

Away from the noisy street!

Away from the storm of words, Where hateful and hating meet!