 | The complete poetical writings of J. G. Holland |  |
333
[I.]
PRELUDE.
In all the crowded Universe
There is but one stupendous Word;
And huge and rough, or trimmed and terse,
Its fragments build and undergird
The songs and stories we rehearse.
There is but one stupendous Word;
And huge and rough, or trimmed and terse,
Its fragments build and undergird
The songs and stories we rehearse.
All forms that human language tries,
All phrases of the books and schools,
And all the words of great and wise
Are weak attempts, or clumsy tools,
To speak the Word that speech defies.
All phrases of the books and schools,
And all the words of great and wise
Are weak attempts, or clumsy tools,
To speak the Word that speech defies.
That Word, ineffable to man,
Though whispered through a thousand years,
Or thundered in the fiery van
Of all the myriad-wheeling spheres,
Remains unvoiced since time began.
Though whispered through a thousand years,
Or thundered in the fiery van
Of all the myriad-wheeling spheres,
Remains unvoiced since time began.
There is no tree that rears its crest,
No fern or flower that cleaves the sod,
Nor bird that sings above its nest,
But tries to speak this Word of God,
And dies when it has done its best.
No fern or flower that cleaves the sod,
Nor bird that sings above its nest,
But tries to speak this Word of God,
And dies when it has done its best.
Like marble in the mountain mine,
White at its heart as on its face,
We chip its crystals, nor divine
The forms of majesty and grace
That wait within the central shrine!
White at its heart as on its face,
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The forms of majesty and grace
That wait within the central shrine!
And this Great Word, all words above,
Including, yet defying all—
Soft as the crooning of a dove,
And strong as the Archangel's call—
Means only this—means only Love!
Including, yet defying all—
Soft as the crooning of a dove,
And strong as the Archangel's call—
Means only this—means only Love!
It represents Creation's whole,—
All space, all worlds, all living things:
And Love endows them with a soul,—
The bright Shechinah, throned in wings
Behind the Temple's Sacred Scroll!
All space, all worlds, all living things:
And Love endows them with a soul,—
The bright Shechinah, throned in wings
Behind the Temple's Sacred Scroll!
The love of home and native land,
The love that springs in son and sire,
And that which welds the heart and hand
Of man and maiden in its fire,
Are signs by which we understand
The love that springs in son and sire,
And that which welds the heart and hand
Of man and maiden in its fire,
Are signs by which we understand
The love whose passion shook The Cross;
And all those loves that, deep and broad,
Make princely gain of piteous loss,
Reveal the love that lives in God
As in a blood-illumined gloss.
And all those loves that, deep and broad,
Make princely gain of piteous loss,
Reveal the love that lives in God
As in a blood-illumined gloss.
| The complete poetical writings of J. G. Holland | |