University of Virginia Library

Now this is true philosophy, that sense
Is sometimes held in such a high suspense
As might a man be, ravish'd from the ground—
The world beneath him spinning round and round—
Who finds, at length permitted to descend,
Familiar scenes withdrawn to some far end,
And where the runnel by his thatch should be
Hears the loud organ of an open sea.

Of such suspension hear a little space—
That which bechanced me in an hour of grace,
When the time-limits fixing life and thought,
Like landmarks storm-effaced, to nothing brought,
Permit that in the circle of a dream
There slips, unnoticed by, a century's scheme,
Or, twixt the lark's last note and swift descent,
That years of rapture to the soul are lent.

It fell upon an eve made rich with heat
Of spikenard odours and frankincense sweet,
Which the deep-breathing earth gave forth from her—
Item—an ecstasy of nard and myrrh—
That a fair haunt which in the woods I trod
Turn'd on a sudden to a church of God,
And down the path, as down an aisle, I pass'd,
Through umbrage issuing to light at last;
An hundred feet above the plain, some crest
Attain'd, confronted by the burning West.

Scarlet and gold, how vividly, had met,
And gulfs beyond all gulfs of violet
Open'd behind; above was snowy fleece
Of stainless vapour: glory, one with peace,
Was blazon'd there. The heart of solar fire
Outdrew me by ineffable desire,
Till it flashed on me, with o'ermastering force,
That I was native to the starry course,
And that the peace of God, surpassing speech,
Through the light only could my spirit reach.
Deep, deep, I gazed, till deeps within me yearn'd;
Deep, till that light to other splendours turn'd;
Deep, till those splendours to a point drew in,
And the eye's sense alone I lived within—
Lived, from the flesh set free, the soul upcaught
Far past the heaven of stars, the heaven of thought.
And the soul died, but something greater still
Leap'd flame-like into me, her place to fill;
I was keen spirit, from the soul made free,
Which is, which hath been, and through all will be,
And then once more I was an eye which sees
Into unutterable mysteries,
While undiffused, yet limitless, thereon
The searching point of naked splendour shone—
A dreadful rapture rending through and through—
As I was known therein, I also knew.
Yes, in the light, I knew, with all made one
By the same law which poises star and sun;
For moving systems marks a single track;
Which sends forth pilgrim souls and draws them back;
From out of One the multiple evolves
And then the many in the One dissolves,
That when the end—which is no end—shall fall
Nothing be lost, but God be all in all.

Out of all time, in that great day's decline,
All love, all knowledge, for a space were mine,—
But holy words are wanting to declare;
And at the fine thereof, returning where—
Five hundred feet above the plain—that crest
I found, confronted by the burning West:
Lo, scarlet—gold—how vividly!—had met
And deeps beyond all deeps of violet,
While sinking in the lowland at my feet
The lark his brown wings hid in meadow-sweet.