 | Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems |  |
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I.
The Portico.
I.
There is a temple, not made with hands,That out in the broad blue firmament stands.
From the silence and shade of its Portico,
I lookt out o'er the landscape that lay below:—
Green, meadowy reaches, in light that ran
To the edgings of brown where groves began;
With here-and-there, now miss'd, now met,
The silvery line of a rivulet,
That up from its fringing greenness glanced,
As into the thickets and out it danced;
And away, but indistinct and dim,
On the broad savanna's farthest rim,
Embowered in beauty, what seem'd to be
The dwellings of men, all tranquilly
Reposing in fields around them spread,
As calm as the heav'n that arch'd o'er head.
II.
And over the greenness, and over the brown
That fell from the groves like a mantle down,
Soon spread a mystical glamour, born
In part of the night, in part of the morn,
Whose soft, warm colors, drifting by,
Lay anon like mist on the mind and the eye;
And visions of wonder, half fear'd, half enjoy'd,
Floating up, sailing on, fill'd that mystical void.
As I lookt, still, and marvel'd, I felt round me fall
The gloom of the cloud that now rests on us all—
The wing of the shadow, the weight of the frown,
That in Eden with words of upbraiding came down;
And out of the distance and darkness stole in
Troubled sounds; and then o'er the bewildering din,
Breaking through the sweet songs of the brooks and the trees,
Rose this Wail, floating up on the breath of the breeze:—
That fell from the groves like a mantle down,
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In part of the night, in part of the morn,
Whose soft, warm colors, drifting by,
Lay anon like mist on the mind and the eye;
And visions of wonder, half fear'd, half enjoy'd,
Floating up, sailing on, fill'd that mystical void.
As I lookt, still, and marvel'd, I felt round me fall
The gloom of the cloud that now rests on us all—
The wing of the shadow, the weight of the frown,
That in Eden with words of upbraiding came down;
And out of the distance and darkness stole in
Troubled sounds; and then o'er the bewildering din,
Breaking through the sweet songs of the brooks and the trees,
Rose this Wail, floating up on the breath of the breeze:—
WAIL OF HUMAN SPIRITS.
1.
Disenthrall'd, we yet linger: not of earth, we are here:And we move in the Mystery yet—year after year.
Like a sunbeam from Darkness to Light we were born—
But our breath pass'd away with the mists of the morn.
2.
Like the grass of the field, ere the seed is yet brown,We were markt for the scythe, and cut ruthlessly down:
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And the Night came before we well knew it was Day.
3.
In the Mystery still do we grope; and we fightWith vague shades in a void that ne'er promises light,
And yet never brings darkness: we linger, and grope,
And despair never comes, yet we never know hope.
4.
It is never so dark but that shadows we see:It is light enough never from darkness to flee:
The silence oppresses, bewilders, confounds,
Yet less than the voices, which never are sounds.
III.
The air labor'd heavily. Shadowy forms,Like those that oft marshal the quick-coming storms
When Aries or Libra full-haloed appears,
And rules o'er the earth from the path of the spheres,
Came and went. Then the winds, as appall'd, held their breath,
And the forms that they bore became quiet as death:
E'en the woods ceast to murmur—the brooks to rejoice—
And all life lay in trance, without motion or voice.
—Of a sudden, the cry of the bittern was heard,
And the earth in the breath of the hurricane stir'd:
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The clouds, like a fleet of ships caught on the main
In the sweep of Euroclydon, wildly were driven
And tost like the sea-foam, until the pale heaven
Shone faintly between them, and smiled on the path
Which the hurricane's breath had just swept in its wrath.
Then quiet came back, and the sun, and the breeze;
And the brooks sang again to the winds and the trees.
IV.
Soon chants as of triumph, though not as of war,
Stole thrillingly in from the silence afar;
And this Song of the Seraphim, borne from above,
Where no mutterings of Hate mar the anthems of Love,
Took the place of the Wail of distrust and despair,
And with harmony fill'd every wave of the air.
Stole thrillingly in from the silence afar;
And this Song of the Seraphim, borne from above,
Where no mutterings of Hate mar the anthems of Love,
Took the place of the Wail of distrust and despair,
And with harmony fill'd every wave of the air.
SONG OF THE SERAPHIM.
1.
Up, where the King of Glory sits,Here where His People have their homes,
Never the wing of a shadow flits,
Never the wail of a sorrow comes:
But the glimmer of stars, and the gleam of the sun,
And the light that streams from the high white Throne,
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Where angels the words of Love intone.
2.
Out of the mists, and above the din,Here, where the King of Glory reigns,
Never a shadow enters in,
Never a troubled voice complains:
But angels sing the Song of the Lamb,
Whereat the Trail of the Serpent ends:
And the Voice of the high-enthroned “I Am”
A hope for man through the ages sends.
3.
Up where the King of Glory sits,Out of the mist, and above the din,
Never the wing of a shadow flits,
Never a sorrow enters in:
But light and love, and prayer and praise,
And charity that all invites,
Make up the measureless, endless days,
The days of heav'n, that know no nights.
V.
And the arching groves responsive rang,As the heav'nly chorists soar'd and sang;
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A freshening breeze came in, and fan'd
The mists to motion, and toucht the trees
To joyous and beautiful harmonies.
Then cloudlets form'd, and sail'd away
Like tilting ships on a rolling bay;
And over the landscape, erewhile dun,
Flasht brightly the beams of the slanting sun;
And the splendor and beauty of earth and sky.
Reflecting the Majesty throned on high,
Proclaim'd, as the glory spread abroad,
The goodness and power and love of God.
| Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems | |