Mystic Trees by Michael Field [i.e. K. H. Bradley and E. E. Cooper] |
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THE FIRST DAY
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 | Mystic Trees |  |
128
THE FIRST DAY
PENANCE
I would make offering to appease!Great creatures, kneeling on their knees,
Burdening down mountain-rocks,
Stupendous in their blocks—
I would toil, pilgrim to my God, as these;
Who travel in their mass,
Through their mountain-pass.
I would bring magnitude to Thee,
Who art Infinity:
My God, in penance I would pant,
As the devoted Elephant,
Who, in his bulk he hath,
Bows down and up, to keep his path.
129
ELECT
Yea, Thou didst dream how I should be Thine own,Dreaming, with eyes wide from the Father's throne,
Dreaming as dream young boys intent
On all the glory they will gain.
With eyes wide on the firmament,
How Thou didst dream the labour and the pain,
The sweat, the fainting, and my soul's consent!
130
DREAD ST. MICHAEL
Dread St. Michael, that with God prevails—
Priests, punctilious, insist
That thou canst not be
Guardian Angel unto me,
Who am but a child.
Priests, punctilious, insist
That thou canst not be
Guardian Angel unto me,
Who am but a child.
Thou art come from Hell most wild;
Thou the awful lake dost see
Where souls wail eternally;
And dependent from thy wrist
Are the judgment scales.
Thou the awful lake dost see
Where souls wail eternally;
And dependent from thy wrist
Are the judgment scales.
—O hist,
It is somewhere in the sacred tales
Thou wert guardian to my Jesus small.
When He cradled in a stall
Thou didst hold Him safe within the rails;
From the murderer beguiled,
From the adder, from the brook,
Thou didst shield Him: it may be
Thou didst guide Him to His Mother's knee,
When too far He dreamed in mountain-nook.
It is somewhere in the sacred tales
Thou wert guardian to my Jesus small.
When He cradled in a stall
Thou didst hold Him safe within the rails;
From the murderer beguiled,
From the adder, from the brook,
Thou didst shield Him: it may be
Thou didst guide Him to His Mother's knee,
When too far He dreamed in mountain-nook.
Egypt, with its demon-gods in bales,
And its sphinxes of the mighty fist,
Thou didst lead the little One among,
And protected Him from wrong,
Who was but a child.
And its sphinxes of the mighty fist,
131
And protected Him from wrong,
Who was but a child.
Dread St. Michael, whose I am!
Save me from the fiends that damn—
So persuasive and so meek,
I may almost touch thy cheek—
Save me, so thy power with God prevails!
Save me from the fiends that damn—
So persuasive and so meek,
I may almost touch thy cheek—
Save me, so thy power with God prevails!
132
MY INTERCESSORS
He filleth his home with her;
He waiteth her every breath:
And looking down on him she saith,
“It is sweeter now than at Nazareth.”
She filleth her eye with him:
She is parted from her Son,
Who is hers ere the world begun—
And lo, all the will of the Lord is done!
They stand by the door at night,
Till the far-spent day be gone,
For they cease not to think upon
One thought day and night in the home of John.
He waiteth her every breath:
And looking down on him she saith,
“It is sweeter now than at Nazareth.”
She filleth her eye with him:
She is parted from her Son,
Who is hers ere the world begun—
And lo, all the will of the Lord is done!
They stand by the door at night,
Till the far-spent day be gone,
For they cease not to think upon
One thought day and night in the home of John.
These twain, my Intercessors!
And one is the Lord's delight;
And the other one is dight
In the Wisdom of the Infinite.
Sometimes, when she blesses him,
Sometimes, when he prays to her,
In their compassion, they confer
Of a life on the sorrowful earth astir.
And they plead for me upon
The stony steps of the house of John.
And one is the Lord's delight;
And the other one is dight
In the Wisdom of the Infinite.
Sometimes, when she blesses him,
Sometimes, when he prays to her,
In their compassion, they confer
Of a life on the sorrowful earth astir.
And they plead for me upon
The stony steps of the house of John.
133
ARIDITY
O soul, canst thou not understandThou art not left alone,
As a dog to howl and moan
His master's absence? Thou art as a book
Left in a room that He forsook,
A book of His dear choice,
That quiet waiteth for His Hand,
That quiet waiteth for His Eye,
That quiet waiteth for His Voice.
134
RESERVATION
But where shall this sighing in me
Fall, as a wind may fall?
I would not have it die;
Let it die remote from me;
My grief must forth to the tombs.
Fall, as a wind may fall?
I would not have it die;
Let it die remote from me;
My grief must forth to the tombs.
Angel
Thy sighing shall not remain with thee,
Nor fall as a wind may fall;
Thou hast no patience to let it die:
I have hidden it alive from thee
In the warm, dry catacombs.
Thy sighing shall not remain with thee,
Nor fall as a wind may fall;
Thou hast no patience to let it die:
I have hidden it alive from thee
In the warm, dry catacombs.
135
A PROFESSION
It is said of her—
“The Cross shall be on her breast as a bundle of myrrh.”
“The Cross shall be on her breast as a bundle of myrrh.”
I have loved odours well,
Loved frankincense and hydromel:
The Angels know I have been very far
After where wild roses are;
And celled morsels of ambergris
Have risen up to my heart as peace.
Will the Cross confer
Loved frankincense and hydromel:
The Angels know I have been very far
After where wild roses are;
And celled morsels of ambergris
Have risen up to my heart as peace.
One day with my breast as a bundle of myrrh?
This would be, if I would let,
Rather as an English Violet,
That would make all my bosom's room
A very murmur of perfume—
This would be, if I would suffer it.
136
MOSS
I lie as a dull and heavy mossThat spreadeth dry beneath Thy Cross.
I lift for Thy drooped eyes no flower-bell
To shield Thee from the passer-by;
I sigh forth no odour for Thee to smell,
Though Thy nostrils search and cry;
But my meshes and plots, where I lie,
With Blood from Thy Feet are tingled;
My Earth with Thy Blood is mingled—
Should Thy lovely Feet be once unbound,
I yield Thee a carpet, soft, profound.
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