 | The collected poems of Arthur Edward Waite |  |
IV
GREAT SACRAMENTS
One dainty, soft and fruitful shower of rain
Has purged and clarified the fragrant air
On this God-favour'd evening, late in spring.
It shines as lucent as thy virgin brow,
O thou most worshipful! To every stir
Its cool, translucent particles respond
By tremulous emotions far prolong'd.
The seething murmurs of the shifting sea
Melt in the pleasance of a mood of dreams;
The temper'd merriment and melody
Of church-bells ringing in the distance seem
A benediction of thy beautiful voice
Which lifts my soul into eternity.
Has purged and clarified the fragrant air
On this God-favour'd evening, late in spring.
It shines as lucent as thy virgin brow,
O thou most worshipful! To every stir
Its cool, translucent particles respond
By tremulous emotions far prolong'd.
The seething murmurs of the shifting sea
Melt in the pleasance of a mood of dreams;
The temper'd merriment and melody
Of church-bells ringing in the distance seem
A benediction of thy beautiful voice
Which lifts my soul into eternity.
304
There falls a gleam upon the open main:
Nor blue, nor grey—it shines with thine eyes' light.
God bless the wonder of those waters deep;
God bless thine eyes—their beauty fills my life;
God bless that lark—his frenzy haunts the sky;
God bless thy voice—its modulated tones
Have spell'd full often many a waste of waves
And oft Astarte bound through formless nights—
When tempests scream'd—to pour her peaceful rays
On riven landscapes of the inner world.
God bless the ripples of thy music, all
My nature lifting to love's mantic heights,
High spiritual quests of life and thought:
God bless thee ever and in all thy ways!
Nor blue, nor grey—it shines with thine eyes' light.
God bless the wonder of those waters deep;
God bless thine eyes—their beauty fills my life;
God bless that lark—his frenzy haunts the sky;
God bless thy voice—its modulated tones
Have spell'd full often many a waste of waves
And oft Astarte bound through formless nights—
When tempests scream'd—to pour her peaceful rays
On riven landscapes of the inner world.
God bless the ripples of thy music, all
My nature lifting to love's mantic heights,
High spiritual quests of life and thought:
God bless thee ever and in all thy ways!
I stand this night upon a lofty down;
The dreaming city by a dreaming sea
Beneath me spreads, bewitch'd in dreaming air:
Round me are solitude and wilderness.
I call God's rain of benediction down
To water all the Paradise of thy soul:
Descend, celestial and deific dew;
Rise, Eden-incense, and thy virtue sweet
Diffuse around thee, as the clover fills
These fields uplifted with its teeming scent.
The dreaming city by a dreaming sea
Beneath me spreads, bewitch'd in dreaming air:
Round me are solitude and wilderness.
I call God's rain of benediction down
To water all the Paradise of thy soul:
Descend, celestial and deific dew;
Rise, Eden-incense, and thy virtue sweet
Diffuse around thee, as the clover fills
These fields uplifted with its teeming scent.
And, lo, the darkness—like a loving mouth—
Parts in the utterance of a bell-sweet name!
The stars stand close around, the trees incline;
From every quarter of the open world
One mystic word—Madonna—softly breathes,
With meanings foreign to the land or sea.
May the strong influence of wind-swept downs,
Of aromatic odours brought from far—
Descending—fill the shining veils of her,
So made a porcelain vessel for the night's
All-sacred myrrh and essences of nard!
Parts in the utterance of a bell-sweet name!
The stars stand close around, the trees incline;
From every quarter of the open world
One mystic word—Madonna—softly breathes,
With meanings foreign to the land or sea.
May the strong influence of wind-swept downs,
Of aromatic odours brought from far—
Descending—fill the shining veils of her,
So made a porcelain vessel for the night's
All-sacred myrrh and essences of nard!
| The collected poems of Arthur Edward Waite | |