University of Virginia Library

previous section Ranolf and Amohia
next section

VII.

But with these Ocean-scenes the Sea-boy fed
On others fruitful both for heart and head;
Had glimpses of strange lands and men as strange;
Saw with each clime their minds and manners change:
Learnt how on God by various names they call,
While God's great smile shines equally on all;
Allah, unimaged, One; Brahma, Vishnu,
And Siva—triple-imaged One in Three;
Ormusd—‘Ahuramasda’—name profound—
‘Living I Am’—that Splendour! One of Two
At war—dark Ahriman his throne invading,
Piercing with Evil first the shell so sound,
His cosmic Egg-of-Order's perfect round;—
Manitou, mistlike with-his pipewhiff fading;—
Buddha—prince, mystic, moralist—at last
Made God for teaching that no God can be:—
13

Arab—Hindu—Red Indian—Jew—Parsee;
Chinese Joss-beater, little reverent, too—
That cracker-loving creature of the past—
Blithe spirit—soul a lifeless leaden cast;
Who with high-sublimated Gods, a store
(His Buddha—Fo; Confutzee's Tien; Taou
That pure God-Intellect of Lao-tse),
Breathes blinding fog—Convention-fixed of yore—
Of grossest superstition. With the rest,
The necromancing negro of the West,
The terrorist of Obeah. These he scanned;
And many a charm on each delightful land
Lavished by Art's or liberal Nature's hand:
Inhaled the breath that through dense mist distils
From green spruce woods and all the sea-air fills
With sweet sour odours from Canadian hills:
Dwelt with enraptured gaze on Hindostan's
Umbrageous bowers of spice and spreading fans,
And glistening ribbon-leaves and arching plumes;
Her starry palms and sacred peepuls set
On many-fingered roots, a snaky net;
Or propping their high-roofed magnificence
On pendent pillars; clustering gorgeous glooms
Whence bulbous domes of marble mosques and tombs
From that black-green deep-bosoming defence
Swell snow-white into burning atmosphere;
Or gilt pagodas rise above the shade
Like spires of thick cardoon-leaves closely laid,
All in blue tanks reflected, grave and clear.
previous section Ranolf and Amohia
next section