University of Virginia Library

I thought at length that haply human love
Might offer refuge from the things above
Which had so long drawn on my life of thought
Through unfrequented pathways, hardly sought,
Full hard to climb; and having climb'd, 'tis still
More dreadful on the summit of such hill
The mind's fastidious balance to preserve,
Nor dizzily towards precipices swerve
And the emerited soul in sense immerge.
Back therefore from the summit and the verge,
Where terribly the known and unknown meet,
For some few seasons baffled, such retreat
As those can find who once the starry track
Have strain'd at and for ever must look back
I made; my peace with Nature, long foregone,
Sign'd, as I best could sign; and so put on
Once more the huddled vesture of my kind.
Then the unearthly beauties, which to find
I strove so long, for me seem'd now to strive;
Their tincture haunted all things here alive,
Suggesting ends desired that were not they;
And that which in the height was far away
On earthly eyes seem'd momently to loom—
Clamour of triumph seized, glorious doom.
And in the place of stillness, brooding deep
On frozen summits, or the awful sleep
Which can the soul amidst the heights infold,
All that which beats within the chains of gold
And iris prison of the public things,
Through mystic music, its invisible wings,
Amidst the outward melodies, began
To speak—as Nature never spoke to man.
I testify that past mere sense alone
Experience spreads her more exalted zone;
That past the common range of human mind
There stretch the royal regions undivined,
An undiscover'd country which if trod
Seems to lead backward and be lost in God.
There is a door, which, when we find its key,
Opens therein from our humanity.
So forth on roof and parapet at times
Stealing, I saw what none can speak in rhymes;
But never came the message to mine ear,
Or saw the visionary eye so near
As when, reluctantly, its potent spell
Breaking, I turn'd from the invisible
And brought the light of all that dwells withdrawn,
The glory of the spiritual dawn,
These fleshly regions to illuminate.

Now, there was one who dwelt within the gate
Of outward dreams, nor ever question'd these,
But rather, awestruck, from realities
Had surely shrunk, if face to face with them.
Yet beauty wore she as a diadem,
And shone in innocence a radiant star:
Gentle and mild was she, as maidens are
Whose souls are subtly link'd with things above
By sanctified capacities of love.
Her from the sons and daughters of the race
I chose, to lift up from her lonely place
Amidst the crowd which sees not where it goes:
I wrought love's work on her, and now she knows.

What follows?—This: that soul can soul uplift;
Those who have dwelt in light can bring that gift
To something more than isolated fruit
Within themselves, and can at will transmute
Such as they take into their heart of heart,
Making an altar set from earth apart,
Whereon is kindled an eternal flame,
And there the Incommunicable Name
Is utter'd. Or—all symbols set aside—
Learn, simple woman can be deified!
I shew this truth—when one, of light possess'd,
Has all his nature to the task address'd.
Know too the work is love's—and love's the call—
While love is also the material.
And at the end such union comes at length
As to the worker brings another strength
Those heights forsaken once again to dare,
Those realms discover which await him there,
With consciousness of ends beyond them still—
The holy palace, the eternal hill!