 | East and west : the discovery of America and other poems |  |
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5. PART V.
The Future Union of East and West.
Yet once again discordant trumpets cease
To mar the music of the hemispheres.
So shall the future world a rose of peace
Blend with the tender lily of her prayers,
And music sweet shall float upon her airs
To melt all souls in floods of happy tears.
To mar the music of the hemispheres.
So shall the future world a rose of peace
Blend with the tender lily of her prayers,
And music sweet shall float upon her airs
To melt all souls in floods of happy tears.
O wing of the Empress of mountains,
What song shall we draw from thy fountains?
Shall it come with a flutter of doves?
Shall it foam with the nestling of loves?
Shall it soothe with the poison of sleep,
Or dance like a sun on the deep?
Nay, no prattle of children or elf,
But the self-hood unconscious of self!
What song shall we draw from thy fountains?
Shall it come with a flutter of doves?
Shall it foam with the nestling of loves?
Shall it soothe with the poison of sleep,
Or dance like a sun on the deep?
Nay, no prattle of children or elf,
But the self-hood unconscious of self!
Soul of my inner face, face of my race,
The play is o'er. Remove thy tragic mask,
And show that hidden feature which no god
Hath e'er divined; till she, thy counterpart,
Bent o'er thy heart when listening to thy sleep.
Then in thine own true dream she saw thee smile
With sunlike manhood; and she said, “'T is well.
The world has waited.
With my kiss he wakes!”
The play is o'er. Remove thy tragic mask,
And show that hidden feature which no god
Hath e'er divined; till she, thy counterpart,
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Then in thine own true dream she saw thee smile
With sunlike manhood; and she said, “'T is well.
The world has waited.
With my kiss he wakes!”
[OMITTED]
Breathe thy kiss on the world's twin soul,
Mornings that sleep in a crystal vision!
Waft thy music from pole to pole,
Airs that sweep from the fields Elysian;
Star-planes lighted by Love's transition!
Mornings that sleep in a crystal vision!
Waft thy music from pole to pole,
Airs that sweep from the fields Elysian;
Star-planes lighted by Love's transition!
Gaze, O world, at the sleeping sea
Perched on thy castle in fond amazement.
Open thy spirit to breezes free,
Open to whisper of love thy casement:
Fling it open from roof to basement.
Perched on thy castle in fond amazement.
Open thy spirit to breezes free,
Open to whisper of love thy casement:
Fling it open from roof to basement.
Space is the kiss of the breeze's daughter;
Kiss her gently, and worlds are one.
Time but the flashing of restless water;
Ages are lost when the day is done
In the infinite now of the setting sun.
Kiss her gently, and worlds are one.
Time but the flashing of restless water;
Ages are lost when the day is done
In the infinite now of the setting sun.
Let us forget like a chanted tune
Shadowy types of the dying races.
History nods to her ancient rune.
Ages lapse with their tidal traces,
Blend in the vision of future faces.
Shadowy types of the dying races.
History nods to her ancient rune.
Ages lapse with their tidal traces,
Blend in the vision of future faces.
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Fold like the wing of a new-born creature,
East and West in a Janus trance!
Tear off the mask of the twofold feature;
Kiss in the mirror with eyes askance,
Love, Narcissus, thine own sweet glance.
East and West in a Janus trance!
Tear off the mask of the twofold feature;
Kiss in the mirror with eyes askance,
Love, Narcissus, thine own sweet glance.
[OMITTED]
God hath willed this soul to be
Like twin branches of a tree,
Whose wet leaves the sunset weaves
In one choral crown of glee.
Like twin branches of a tree,
Whose wet leaves the sunset weaves
In one choral crown of glee.
Petals of infolded plan,
Model of millennial man,
Thine the vows of bride and spouse
Plighted since the world began.
Model of millennial man,
Thine the vows of bride and spouse
Plighted since the world began.
Life shall be a twofold game;—
Harmony thy primal aim;
Individuality
Twin-born guerdon of thy fame.
Harmony thy primal aim;
Individuality
Twin-born guerdon of thy fame.
What then shalt thou harmonize?
All that force the Westerns prize;—
Masculinity of measures,
Vigilance of Argus eyes.
All that force the Westerns prize;—
Masculinity of measures,
Vigilance of Argus eyes.
Whence shall spring harmonic norms?
From the sun the Eastern warms;—
Loving femininity,
Fertile flower-bed of forms.
From the sun the Eastern warms;—
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Fertile flower-bed of forms.
Then shall art with beauty rife
Melt into the Art of Life,
And the marts of industry
Win for starving sons of strife.
Melt into the Art of Life,
And the marts of industry
Win for starving sons of strife.
Stir of mill like hum of tabor
Singing of goodwill to neighbor,
Exaltation of creation,
Apotheosis of Labor!
Singing of goodwill to neighbor,
Exaltation of creation,
Apotheosis of Labor!
If true harmony is prized,
Man is self-decentralized;
Christ's impersonality
World-absorbed and emphasized!
Man is self-decentralized;
Christ's impersonality
World-absorbed and emphasized!
Not a crushing code of rules
For a paradise of fools;
But fresh joy of leaping fountains
Mid the broken shafts of schools.
For a paradise of fools;
But fresh joy of leaping fountains
Mid the broken shafts of schools.
Faith incredulous of creeds,
Love is full of bursting seeds;
Scatters showers of living flowers
Through a wilderness of weeds.
Love is full of bursting seeds;
Scatters showers of living flowers
Through a wilderness of weeds.
So may perfect Art and Prayer,
Life and Faith in union rare,
Build the soul new tabernacles,
World-encircling domes of air.
Life and Faith in union rare,
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World-encircling domes of air.
Age of worship crowned with spires,
Flames of purified desires,
Consecrate thy knights for battle
With thy symphony of choirs.
Flames of purified desires,
Consecrate thy knights for battle
With thy symphony of choirs.
Who shall sing this song of spheres?
Whose the soul's baptismal tears?
Who anoint with tenderest touches
Christ's eternal wounds of spears?
Whose the soul's baptismal tears?
Who anoint with tenderest touches
Christ's eternal wounds of spears?
Thine, O thine, that martyred breast,
White-souled Virgin of the West,
Heaven-crowned sisterhood of sorrows,
Love's incarnate Alkahest!
White-souled Virgin of the West,
Heaven-crowned sisterhood of sorrows,
Love's incarnate Alkahest!
Who shall arm these knights with flame?
Who transmit the oath-bound aim?
Who shall crumble stars to powder
With the sceptre of God's name?
Who transmit the oath-bound aim?
Who shall crumble stars to powder
With the sceptre of God's name?
Thou, O selfless self-sworn priest,
Soul-wrapped manhood of the East!
Let thy heel with diamond lightning
Blast the eyelids of the Beast!
Soul-wrapped manhood of the East!
Let thy heel with diamond lightning
Blast the eyelids of the Beast!
Here I refer to the forms of the archangels mentioned in a previous note. The vagra, or mace, also spoken of, has its Chinese name sometimes translated by the word “diamond.” Here the diamond, in its hardness and concentration of ray, may symbolically express the spiritual potency of the instrument.
Fuse the worlds with inward light,
Faith-fed kingly anchorite!
Fire of Bodhisattwa Wisdom
With the Sun of Love unite!
Faith-fed kingly anchorite!
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With the Sun of Love unite!
Thus may knighthood of defiance
Consecrate the arm of science;
Twin-joined vigor of the ages,
Corner-stone of God's reliance.
Consecrate the arm of science;
Twin-joined vigor of the ages,
Corner-stone of God's reliance.
Thus may Christlike Mercy render
Holiest warmth to Beauty tender;
Twin-joined womanhood of races,
Sunlike heart of God's own splendor.
Holiest warmth to Beauty tender;
Twin-joined womanhood of races,
Sunlike heart of God's own splendor.
Corner-stone and sunlike heart!
Strife in Wisdom, Love in Art!
Thou art joined in twofold marriage,
Links which Time can never part!
Strife in Wisdom, Love in Art!
Thou art joined in twofold marriage,
Links which Time can never part!
[OMITTED]
O unveiled bride,
Sweet other self at my side,
I ask no wedding bliss
Of passionate external kiss.
Let not the trembling pulse of lips
This purer ecstasy eclipse.
'T is not a palpitating form
I clasp to bosom warm.
I feel thee wrap my soul
As in the splendor of an aureole.
I breathe thy breath as through my spirit came
A tongue of Pentecostal flame.
No human spouse e'er felt
The culminating fire in which I melt.
Sweet other self at my side,
I ask no wedding bliss
Of passionate external kiss.
Let not the trembling pulse of lips
This purer ecstasy eclipse.
'T is not a palpitating form
I clasp to bosom warm.
I feel thee wrap my soul
As in the splendor of an aureole.
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A tongue of Pentecostal flame.
No human spouse e'er felt
The culminating fire in which I melt.
There let it burn
Like clouded incense from a temple urn;
And in its fragrant steam
Thy thoughts unfold like angels in a dream,
Unutterable things,
The fluttering music of elusive wings,
Flashings of interspacial laws
Wafted like webs of gauze,
Bathing the room
In floods of opalescent bloom!
And, as the dead arise
In transformed drapery to open skies,
When wreaths of petalled trumpets wrap the stars
In last triumphal chords of orchestras,
And in the stern archangels' tracks
The skies dissolve like fields of smoking wax;—
So from my inmost core
Shrivelled like paper in a furnace roar,
Or rocks where lavas hiss
From Ætna's treacherous abyss,
Rises a bloom of heavenly asphodel;
Bursting its elemental shell
A song of wingéd bliss
As from Creation's chrysalis—
A dim uncertain form divine,
O love, thy soul and mine,
Draped in soft veils of holiness,
Shrouded in Deity's caress!
Slowly it floats like spirit mist
By forests of tall tapers kissed,
Slowly alone
Up to the gilded altar's throne,
Hovering there
Like a condensing universe of prayer;—
Girt with bright-haloed constellations,
Memories of incarnations
Glowing like fallen leaves
Upon fresh-garnered sheaves.
There for a moment brief
It sits like God upon a lotus leaf;
The still unspoken Word
Before Creation stirred,
Or the transcendant Dove
Fell like a ray of love;—
Then fades in formless light
Too exquisite for human sight;
As when some saint is lifted up and hurled
Out of this mortal world,
This temple transitory
For Nature's unemancipated priest,
Into the silence of Nirwana's glory,
Where there is no more West and no more East.
Like clouded incense from a temple urn;
And in its fragrant steam
Thy thoughts unfold like angels in a dream,
Unutterable things,
The fluttering music of elusive wings,
Flashings of interspacial laws
Wafted like webs of gauze,
Bathing the room
In floods of opalescent bloom!
And, as the dead arise
In transformed drapery to open skies,
When wreaths of petalled trumpets wrap the stars
In last triumphal chords of orchestras,
And in the stern archangels' tracks
The skies dissolve like fields of smoking wax;—
So from my inmost core
Shrivelled like paper in a furnace roar,
Or rocks where lavas hiss
From Ætna's treacherous abyss,
Rises a bloom of heavenly asphodel;
Bursting its elemental shell
A song of wingéd bliss
As from Creation's chrysalis—
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O love, thy soul and mine,
Draped in soft veils of holiness,
Shrouded in Deity's caress!
Slowly it floats like spirit mist
By forests of tall tapers kissed,
Slowly alone
Up to the gilded altar's throne,
Hovering there
Like a condensing universe of prayer;—
Girt with bright-haloed constellations,
Memories of incarnations
Glowing like fallen leaves
Upon fresh-garnered sheaves.
There for a moment brief
It sits like God upon a lotus leaf;
The still unspoken Word
Before Creation stirred,
Or the transcendant Dove
Fell like a ray of love;—
Then fades in formless light
Too exquisite for human sight;
As when some saint is lifted up and hurled
Out of this mortal world,
This temple transitory
For Nature's unemancipated priest,
Into the silence of Nirwana's glory,
Where there is no more West and no more East.
| East and west : the discovery of America and other poems | |