VII
MASTER-BUILDING
Green earth is round thee and blue-gleaming sea
Spreads far before—so full, so bright, so fair
Its silver surface: on the beach it lies,
As a child breathing on the breast asleep.
There is no limit to the golden hopes
Which light, like lamps, the future's floral paths.
There is no path too long, no goal too far,
No height beyond thee: thou art strong for all
And all in turn renouncest—land and sea,
Youth's kingship, youth's inheritance therein,
And towards the perfect, hidden life in God
Directest only thy desiring eyes:
May thy high soul be throned o'er space and time;
Be thine the Secret Name, the Morning Star!
Like Michael soaring from celestial strife,
I watch thee rise; through surging mists of sense
Thy strong right arm put forth, thy shapely head—
With striving face upturn'd and streaming hair—
All light itself, into the light ascends.
The rainbow-splendour of unspotted mind
Invests thee now; so sinks the flesh subdued:
Thine earnest lips the grace of soul invoke,
The secret eye which sees and searches all,
The word of spirit in the soul itself
Declared. . . .
But now, with modest eyelids droop'd,
With even pulse, with cool and indrawn mien,
I see thee stand, still in thy white array'd.
Thou speakest not: this is thy victory,
Who hast, triumphant by the strength of will,
Compass'd thine end. Henceforth the voice of God
Teaches within, the spirit of Christ inspires.
So dost thou issue from thy house of thought,
With hands uplifted: thou art priest and king.
What dost thou seek among thy weaker kind?
The priestly sacredness of thine own self
For man to offer in the name of God—
A cause divine. . . . What angel dwells on earth?
Nay, ask what earnest man of mien erect,
In whose eyes shines the troth of other worlds,
Reveals a perfect law, the Food Divine
Administers, and spans the breathless height
'Twixt man and God, the mystic bridge makes known—
No longer narrow as a sword's sharp edge,
For all can wall thereon.
My lord, all hail!
Thy call is coming out of realms unseen;
The work is done. Put off thy garments now,
The lapse and wash of an eternal sea
Stirs in the twilight hush. So pass therein;
The waters once above thy form will close,
But when thy head divides their surface calm
Comes light, comes warmth of the eternal day.
I ask no inspiration now from earth,
Or ocean's voice, to paint in human terms
A soul transfigured by immortal being.
I see thy former nature magnified,
While other missions lead, in worlds unknown,
Most saintly missions, of thy progress born—
Of God's deep counsels born—for evermore.
And now to Him Who gives us space to dream in
Be praise for ever from our dreams and us;
May noble acts be food for dreams still nobler;
May these, ascending in a scale divine,
The scope of action and of life enlarge,
Till life with Him be one!
