Ranolf and Amohia A dream of two lives. By Alfred Domett. New edition, revised |
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 | Ranolf and Amohia |  |
IV.
Well, the great Sea-Life; the quick-shifting crowd
Of Sects that showed the human Spirit down-bowed
With equal faith each sect before its Lord,
While each the others' equally ignored:
Then the Greek grandeurs where that Spirit was seen
Erect and self-dependent and serene;
All made the youth still less and less incline
To cramping creeds or any partial shrine.
His heart was but one endless protestation
Against the slightest shackles on free Thought:
Rather than not attain the end he sought,
His strong intolerant love of toleration,
His towering spirit of tyrannous liberty,
Had forced all mental bondslaves to be free.—
Then all for Nature! “She alone for me!”
“What”—he would cry in his impetuous style,
Climbing, perhaps, some mountain-peak the while,
Of Sects that showed the human Spirit down-bowed
With equal faith each sect before its Lord,
While each the others' equally ignored:
Then the Greek grandeurs where that Spirit was seen
Erect and self-dependent and serene;
All made the youth still less and less incline
To cramping creeds or any partial shrine.
His heart was but one endless protestation
Against the slightest shackles on free Thought:
Rather than not attain the end he sought,
His strong intolerant love of toleration,
His towering spirit of tyrannous liberty,
Had forced all mental bondslaves to be free.—
Then all for Nature! “She alone for me!”
“What”—he would cry in his impetuous style,
Climbing, perhaps, some mountain-peak the while,
“What need of Temples! All around,
Through Earth's expanse, through Heaven's profound,
A conscious Spirit beauty-crowned,
A visible glory breathes and breaks,
And of these mountains, moors and lakes
A Holiest of the Holies makes!
Above—around—where'er you be,
A true Shekinah shining see!
With ever-fuming Incense there
An Altar burns for praise and prayer!
Whence better to your ‘Lord of Love’
Can sorrow waft its wail above
Than from some desert-waste forlorn,
Where sadly, of all splendour shorn,
Creeps in the stilly-dripping Morn?
Where best, ye broken-hearted, groan
On ‘God’ for help but all alone
Where forests make their mighty moan?
Where best exult in heart-hushed praise
If not where hills their great tops raise
Majestic in the silent blaze
Of Sunset over Ocean's haze?
What! shall the Spirit only draw
Near that unknown and nameless Awe
Where, beauteous though it be, there stands
Some puny work of human hands?
But I, O mystic Might! no less
As thy all-hallowed home will bless
Sublimest Nature's loveliness!
But I will dare, O Power Divine!
Revere One true transcendent Shrine,
This flashing Universe of Thine!”
Through Earth's expanse, through Heaven's profound,
A conscious Spirit beauty-crowned,
A visible glory breathes and breaks,
And of these mountains, moors and lakes
A Holiest of the Holies makes!
Above—around—where'er you be,
A true Shekinah shining see!
21
An Altar burns for praise and prayer!
Whence better to your ‘Lord of Love’
Can sorrow waft its wail above
Than from some desert-waste forlorn,
Where sadly, of all splendour shorn,
Creeps in the stilly-dripping Morn?
Where best, ye broken-hearted, groan
On ‘God’ for help but all alone
Where forests make their mighty moan?
Where best exult in heart-hushed praise
If not where hills their great tops raise
Majestic in the silent blaze
Of Sunset over Ocean's haze?
What! shall the Spirit only draw
Near that unknown and nameless Awe
Where, beauteous though it be, there stands
Some puny work of human hands?
But I, O mystic Might! no less
As thy all-hallowed home will bless
Sublimest Nature's loveliness!
But I will dare, O Power Divine!
Revere One true transcendent Shrine,
This flashing Universe of Thine!”
| Ranolf and Amohia | |