 | Poems and dramas of George Cabot Lodge |  |
155
FAITH
I
There's a star overseas like a dew-drop new-hung on a bud that uncloses;
There's a fire in the turrets of heaven; there's a flush on the breast of the sea;
And the gates of the sun-rise are filled with a flame as of myriad roses,
That kindles ineffable vistas, a world re-created for me.
There's a fire in the turrets of heaven; there's a flush on the breast of the sea;
And the gates of the sun-rise are filled with a flame as of myriad roses,
That kindles ineffable vistas, a world re-created for me.
There's a hill in its vestment of dew-fall that kneels like a priest to the altar;
Low bird-cries resound in the silence, frail tendrils reach forth to the light;
The fields flower-breasted are fragrant, and fresh the faint breezes that falter:—
Life's faith in the future is perfect, life's dream of eternity bright! ...
Low bird-cries resound in the silence, frail tendrils reach forth to the light;
The fields flower-breasted are fragrant, and fresh the faint breezes that falter:—
Life's faith in the future is perfect, life's dream of eternity bright! ...
If ours were the faith of the petals unfolding, the nest and its treasure,—
The faith all revealed and illumined, the faith that alone makes us free,—
What divine understanding were ours of the sun-light that flows without measure,
Of the silver of moon-light that rings down the resonant floor of the sea! ...
The faith all revealed and illumined, the faith that alone makes us free,—
156
Of the silver of moon-light that rings down the resonant floor of the sea! ...
What divine understanding for life; for the world how majestic a meaning;
What truths by the way-side; in martyrdom, poverty, pain, what delight;
What poems in the midnight; what visions revealed that the darkness was screening,
As like fire-tinged incense the dawn-mists flush deep round the knees of the night! ...
What truths by the way-side; in martyrdom, poverty, pain, what delight;
What poems in the midnight; what visions revealed that the darkness was screening,
As like fire-tinged incense the dawn-mists flush deep round the knees of the night! ...
O, beware! for the safety we cherish is false:—we are blind! we are soothless!—
Have we learned how the fields are made fruitful? Are we aimed to life's ultimate goal?—
O for faith to accept for our lives not an ecstasy less, not a truth less,
Than the world and the senses afford us, than are sphered in the scope of the soul! ...
Have we learned how the fields are made fruitful? Are we aimed to life's ultimate goal?—
O for faith to accept for our lives not an ecstasy less, not a truth less,
Than the world and the senses afford us, than are sphered in the scope of the soul! ...
157
II
To-day the Lord sleeps in the House of Life ...Round him the dark is dumb, deserted, deep;
And all the haste we make, the feast we keep,
The law we serve with cross and cord and knife,
The Gods we supplicate, the tears we weep,
The crowns we win as victors in the strife,
The forms and fears with which our days are rife,
Like vague, fantastic dreams perturb his sleep ...
He sleeps and dreams to-day and yesterday.—
When shall he wake, and in his eyes the breath
Of day-break burn with truth's eternal beams?
When shall he wake? ... We ask in wild dismay!—
Haste! lest he sleep, as now he sleeps and dreams,
Dreamless to-morrow in the House of Death! ...
158
III
Yet, as the truth's new testament contrives,Daily within the meditative mind,
Orbits of light where thought before was blind,
And where was doubt supreme imperatives;—
So, in the high adventure of our lives,
As we are real, receptive, unresigned,
Seeking the Lord, we shall not fail to find:
Till strength by strength his regency revives ...
Then shall his will and work alone be done
In all we do; his voice alone resound
In all we say; and he alone confound—
Imperishable when all else perisheth!—
With eyes of daring and dominion,
The void, vast vision of the Sphinx of Death! ...
159
IV
Hourly to find perfection in all things,And in ourselves perfection;—day by day,
Greatly adventured on the endless way,
To realize truth's inspired imaginings;—
To beat up the wide skies of thought on wings
Radiant with sunrise;—to depart away
Into the future with the great grave gay
Passionate heart of life that loves and sings;—
This is the soul's desire!—the secret aim
Of life's dim aspiration, from the sod
Thro' countless forms, thro' beast and man and God!—
This is the mind's pure ecstasy; and this
Is love, which kindles to a single flame
Life's immemorial validities!
| Poems and dramas of George Cabot Lodge | |