The Seven Days, or the Old and New Creation By the author of "The Cathedral" [i.e. Isaac Williams] |
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| 3. | THE THIRD DAY. The Sea and the Earth. |
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 | The Seven Days, or the Old and New Creation |  |
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THE THIRD DAY. The Sea and the Earth.
123
ARGUMENT.
The voice of the Sea an echo to the song of the morning stars at the foundation of the world. The formation of new worlds resembling interruptions of Nature's course by earthquakes and thunder. The natural movement of waters owing to the first command of gathering together. Their obedience to God renders their sounds pleasing, and motions healthful. The sea in its various aspects. Secrets of the deep, its saltness and its tides. Combined with evil since the fall. The sea to the earth, what sleep is to daily life.
The Dry Land. Its internal structure, geological and mineral. Mountains, vales, rivers, and woods. Forest contemplations. Manifold diversity in forests and gardens. The command to look to “the fig-tree and all the trees.” Various kinds of flowers in all climes. Their structure and distinctive character indicating the care of God in the human soul. The Lily, the Autumnal Crocus, the Rose, the Vine, the Corn fields. Climbing plants. Healthful and poisonous. Their lessons of God's providence and man's frailty. Christ the Tree of Life, in whom Nature is called on to rejoice. Solomon wise in nature's mysteries; his fall our warning.
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MORNING.
I
Hark, with what eddying circles down time's riverSweet hymning undulations without end
Are borne along—for ever and for ever—
While morning stars their songs melodious blend,
To see the Earth with hill and vale ascend
From the abyss of waters; mountain crown'd
And veil'd in mist, while from her sides descend
Numberless rivers to the deep profound,
And the great thundering Sea takes up the harmonious sound!
126
II
Therefore such dewy freshness still remainsIn sounds of Ocean water, which along
From shore to shore that ancient song sustains,
Whose murmuring lapse and cadence ever young
With miracle of waters, sweet and strong,
Of full-voiced praise and adoration tells;
Great symbol of the Church's endless song,
The chaunt of the First-born that moves and swells,
The mystic Temple where God's holier presence dwells.
III
Then strongly based on ribs of adamant,Like giant Andes or the Uralian chain,
The granite multitudes His Hand did plant,
Like shelly range on tortoise back, again
“At Thy rebuke” to hide beneath the main.
To her from Ocean-chambers issuing hail!
While her green robe floats over hill and plain,
And from her jewell'd brow the white mists sail,
Rises the Virgin Queen lifting her bridal veil.
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IV
There is a music and sublimityIn your dread origins, as forth ye come
From your Creator's hand; like when the sea
Lifts up her glorious voice; or moons illume
The mist-envelop'd mountains 'mid their gloom
Walking in brightness;—thoughts which man beseem,
Joy and adoring wonder; in their room
Comes forth earth-delving Science with her theme,
Like telling in the morn of the sick worldling's dream.
V
As subterranean Thunders from belowPut forth their hands, shaking the earth and sea,
Some Sodom or Gomorrah to o'erthrow;
Or from their sulphur house all suddenly
To execute their warrant Lightnings flee;
Or hurricanes upon some village scene
Come forth in their long-thundering majesty;
So then in mountain-moving worlds serene
The voice of God was heard, the Almighty hand was seen.
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VI
Then secretly with simultaneous aweO'erflowing endless from the Eternal's Breast
Into all things enter'd their being's law,
With omnipresent guidance to invest;
Such as in after age, with glass-eyed quest
And manifold induction seeming wise,
Philosophy to sage might manifest,—
Causes, effects, and stern necessities,—
How waters downward flow, how air-wing'd flames arise.
VII
Whence have ye sprung, ye fountains, like the morn?Why do ye haste? and whither speed along?
And why is never fill'd your watery bourne?
What hidden impulse urges you to throng?
And keeps your watery footsteps fleet and strong?
It is that Voice which, sleepless as the sea,
Is on you like a spell, and keeps from wrong,
“In one place let the waters gather'd be;”
Ye never cease to hear, nor, hearing, cease to flee.
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VIII
Drop after drop, wave after wave, from steepFalling to steep, while one drop hastes away
Another fast succeeds, till to the deep
All glide along; but if they move or stay,
What men call nature is that they obey,
And ever hear anew that first command:
As on alternate watch the Night and Day
First issued forth in course o'er sea and land,
And still for ever young that ordinance doth stand.
IX
'Tis that which renders sweet and musicalVoices of nature, that they but fulfil
Their Maker's first behest; in sounding fall,
Or liquid lapse serene of brook or rill,
Or lakes upon their watches standing still,
They are but echoes of the Eternal Voice,
But mirrors of His omnipresent will,
And that sublime obedience seems their choice,
Therefore they seem to live, and living to rejoice;—
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X
Because with them to live is to obey;—The Word within them in unbroken force
Is as a wheel that rests not, but whose sway
Is to themselves a law, whose guiding source
No after-reckoning knows and no remorse;
But with a power no let nor weakness mars
Wings globe or globule to perpetual course,
Sets their own bounds to wandering moon and stars,
And hedges in the sea with brazen bolts and bars.
XI
Because with them to live is to obeyTheir great Creator, and in Him to rest,
Doing His will Who on their natal day
Look'd on them as they rose at His behest,
And call'd them good. Yea, should they seem impress'd
With alter'd will of God in other mood,
For chastening and for vengeance seem unblest,
And to partake of man's inquietude,
Yet are they relics still of that primeval good;—
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XII
And bear within themselves in their decaySymbols of good restor'd,—in embryo bear
Shapings and shadowings of regenerate Day;
As young of all live creatures which appear
A bloom from their Creator's hand to wear,
Belov'd and loving, hopeful yet and new;
Till grown familiar with our sinful air;
Then e'en in their decay will come to view
Types of a better world, substantial, endless, true.
XIII
Therefore I love you still, ye glorious Seas,And as ye rise from Nature's genial womb,
Would read within you greater destinies,
Where lights from Heaven your watery vasts illume,
And open all your majesty and gloom;
Would read within you our Creator's mind,
And mightier things which are beyond the tomb,
For resurrection is in you enshrin'd,
And Love is o'er you like a radiant robe reclin'd.
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XIV
Fresh from His hand as at creation's birth,Thou image vast of the Omnipotent!
Ye beauteous watery arms encircling earth,
By salt within your secret springs unspent
Renew'd in youth and freshness, whence is sent,
From circling friths and fountains underneath,
To sunny isles and river'd continent
Savours of immortality which breathe,
Combining with the sun to renovate from death.
XV
And thou, great Ocean, what doth thee impel,With mountain multitudes against the land,
Thus threatening on thy bed to rage and swell,
Then as remembering that Divine command,
Fall gently murmuring on the soft smooth sand?
That still small Voice, by thee heard evermore,
Makes the weak yielding sands to be a band
To bind the strong man in his wild uproar,
And lay him like a babe soft slumbering on the shore.
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XVI
How sweet to watch the billow from its sleepFar on the seas on pendent curve to rise,
Then cresting its huge belly on the deep,
Wave after wave careering, till it lies,
And on the strand in a soft whisper dies;
Or lash'd by winds up the rock's black'ning side
Scatters its silver spray, and whitening flies.
Sweet too to watch from far the circuit wide,
And blending with the skies its dark empurpled tide.
XVII
Gather'd sublime upon its watery heaps,With high-o'erarching and cærulean bow,
The treasure-house of waters broadly sweeps:
How sweet to view from some Heaven-climbing brow
Where 'tween the opening mountains it doth shew
Like a huge serpent, with its dark-blue form
Emerging; and as if the world below
There wound about a live gigantic worm,
Basking with sun-bright scales, or blackening for the storm.
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XVIII
As from the land we gaze upon the mainWhy thus, like the chameleon's changeful hue,
Varies the mantle of the watery plain,
Murky, or white, or yellow, green, or blue,
Each rainbow tint in beauteous semblance new?
As God looks on the waters thus they prove;
Fears, joys, and consolations come to view;
And our Baptismal covenant of love
Changes its varied hope as change those skies above.
XIX
But who the secrets of the abyss hath found?Where is the saltness gender'd? And what store
Bids it according to the need abound?
To temperate zones the most where needed more,
And less of saltness where the polar shore
Has its own icy bonds? What mind below
The lunar chains electric shall explore
Which urge the tidal motions? Who shall know
Why the vast watery worlds in westward courses flow?
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XX
What eye of man, what solar gleam divineHath been to the foundations of the deep;—
Where valley, cave, and Alp, and Apennine;—
And corals of all hue that boundless sweep,
Like forests waving in a midnight sleep,
Where star or moon ne'er reach'd with pearly ray,
Nor wind hath stirr'd the unfathomable keep?
Like the starr'd Heavens they mock our feeble gaze,
To speak the All-seeing One and His mysterious ways.
XXI
And guesses of diviner truth may lie'Neath those Arabian tales, of crystal walls,
Palaces submarine of other sky,—
And Grecian auguries of sapphire stalls,
Nereids and Gods and more than kingly halls,
And “ocean sire of all things” deem'd aright.
On Galilean waves a radiance falls,
Which hath those Heathen fables put to flight,
And left on the blue deep footsteps unearthly bright.
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XXII
Not for thy seeming beauty on that dayThy Maker on thee look'd, and call'd thee good,
But for the deeper wisdom which there lay,
Shadows sublime which on thy rising brood,
Of Him Who on thy troubled surface stood
As on a crystal floor. Oh for that key
Of David to unlock the water-flood—
The power of mighty waters and the sea
Hiding in unknown deeps the gems of mystery!
XXIII
O'er foam-topp'd heaving ridges, hollow valeOf waters, billowy glens, and hanging cave,
As on his wild home sports the Heaven-born gale;
Thus thoughts on thoughts agglomerate, wave on wave,
Keep the soul fresh in motion, airs that save,
Salt founts of hidden grace. O speaking shore,
While sparkling sprays our lingering footsteps lave,
And the red sun flaming with radiant ore
Shines like a golden shaft upon a marble floor!
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XXIV
Great living image of Eternity,Like Heaven's blue depth at night! thus “as the sound
Of many waters” seem'd God's voice to be;
And as the waves which on the sea abound
The souls of men in God's own hand are found,
He moves them as He wills, within a deep
Where fathom of man's thought ne'er touch'd the ground;
Moulds them to speak His voice, His course to keep;
O symbol of the Vast, and Powers that never sleep!
XXV
To thee from scenes of this tumultuous lifeSeek wearied men, and gaze where Ocean flows;
From the world's business and the stir and strife,
In Ocean's restless motion find repose,
His boundlessness and freedom;—from the throes
And yearnings of undying sympathies
That rest in God alone; the view bestows
Sweet soothing influence, for on it lies
His shadow in Whom hide their endless destinies.
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XXVI
And still the freshening memories of that sight,Oft with an innocent and pure regret,
Far inland where we toil, by day and night
Visit us, 'mid the fever and the fret,—
Of seas and skies in some soft image met,
When all the little billows are at play
In glistening exultations, as if set
To keep some shining summer holiday;
Or stirr'd by the black storm to some autumnal fray.
XXVII
Yet 'tis not all for good—the Bridal Queen,Crown'd with the stars and clothed with the sun,
Sitting above the waterflood is seen;
But “the great Whore,” the mystic Babylon,
“Sitteth on many waters.” There alone
The cormorant on the rock stands in the sky
Preying on speckled victims he hath won,
While white-wing'd ships, on dove-like ministry,
Bear to benighted realms the tidings from on high.
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XXVIII
It is not all for good—that serpent lengthThat winds around can bask and look divine,
But only to deceive, and shew his strength
Like the false world in shipwrecks; smiles benign
That lure and are not; hopes that sail and shine,
Then disappear. A time is at the door
When of these wrecks and storms shall be no sign,
The sea shall yield her dead and be no more,
Save that mysterious Sea upon the secret shore.
XXIX
Mirror of man within, O wreck divine!All forms of nature which with us converse
Bear good and evil in their chequer'd sign;
And the broad Sea that lesson to rehearse
Blends with beatitudes the primal curse;
For weal or woe extending on each side:
It is the heart of this great universe,
Whose veins and arteries branch far and wide,
Rivers and flowing founts and circulating tide.
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XXX
The Sea and Land divide this nether globe,As through the circling year in every place
The Night and Day weave their alternate robe.
The Sea unfruitful spreads o'er empty space,
Yet quickens all the earth with sweet embrace:
O'er empty time thus spreads unfruitful Sleep,
Yet freshens all our life with dews of grace.
Both cherish, soothe, they both around us sweep,
And all life's dusty ways with dews celestial steep.
XXXI
Like a vast sea of being is our sleep,Mighty, unfruitful, full of mystery,
In which the stars of Heaven as in a deep
Look down, and there are mirror'd; 'tis a sea
Where things that once have been, or are to be,
Converse with us and spirits come around.
Something it hath akin to Deity,
Spreading unseen in channels underground,
Whereby its freshening powers have our weak senses found.
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XXXII
As first arising from the watery deepThe varied world beheld the encircling sky,
So this our life rises from formless sleep.
And without sleep our life were dead and dry,
Like desert sands of burning Araby:
In both through this our life which else were dead
The everlasting arms beneath us lie:
For Ocean is the earth's restoring bed,
Whose influence unseen is all around her spread.
XXXIII
And why from out the Sea's mysterious wombArose this order'd world which round us lies,
But that new worlds did in the distance loom
From the Baptismal waters to arise?
And why ere yet the sun was in the skies
Was life thro' vegetable kingdoms stirr'd,
With all creation's living energies;
But lest the creature's honour be preferr'd?
For light and life are Thine, Thou all-creating Word.
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XXXIV
Then, music of the waters, lift your sweetAnd solemn voices! let delight and wonder
Gaze on your roaring falls or rippling feet:—
Whether with flowing oceans burst asunder,
And thousand rushing falls above and under,
Some magazine of mighty floods down sweeps
The music of his waters, heard in thunder:
Or from the mossy rocks some fountain creeps,
Heard thro' the day and night, thro' night and day ne'er sleeps
XXXV
The music of its waters: or betweenThe winding banks some river, fleet and strong,
With sinuous lapse and soothing sound serene
Round some rude crag plies his low undersong,
The music of the waters; or among
Rocks lov'd from childhood on some wild sea shore
The billowy tide its pebbled sands along
Lifts up its frothy head and is no more;—
Music of waters still,—still lingering o'er and o'er—
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XXXVI
The music of the waters,—sweet your sound,Ye flowing waters, for where'er ye go
That first command unbroken still is found
In your glad voices, whether the winds blow
The sea's deep organ, rivers winding slow,
Hoarse water-falls, or rills that tinkling fleet;
But should the silent pool forget to flow,
There things unclean in lurid concourse meet,
And pestilence and death brood o'er the unhallow'd seat.
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EVENING.
I
And now from Ocean—with her flowing tidesHeaving alternate from her hidden breast,
Like some huge animal whose ribbed sides,
Now swelling forth, now in themselves compress'd,
Inhale—exhale by turns; from her unrest,
And countenance of anger or of mirth—
We turn to thee with many-mountain'd crest
Lifting thyself to light, our parent Earth,
What tongue of man shall speak the secrets of thy birth?
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II
As first beneath the uplifted veil reposing,From seas emerg'd magnificent and new,
Mount after mount, vale after vale disclosing,
The mother of creation comes to view,
Cloth'd with the purple morn, with pearls of dew,
And streams like silver hanging on the steep.
Then rock to rock its watery trumpet blew
With torrents numberless that downward leap,
Like armed troops that haste their order'd ranks to keep,
III
At the loud signal's sound. Nature appearsCloth'd infinite in her variety,
Beyond what thought of man thro' endless years
Could traverse or pursue; to clime and sky
Adapting each in wondrous harmony,
Profusion endless, tree and herb and flower,
Each in itself a world of mystery,
O'er mount, field, marsh; each as that Word of power
Hath gifted it with life and with life-giving dower.
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IV
But He that clad the beast with dappled skin,Beauty and colour, shape, and outward grace,
Hath set His wonders too its frame within,
Vertebral range and sinews: thus while face
Of nature hath been deck'd in every place,
That Voice Creative in earth's secret womb
Hath stor'd its marvels, which we darkly trace,
Cradles of adamant, basaltic room,
With starry bright arcades that light the nether gloom:—
V
Salt's subterranean realms—stalactic walls—Marble-arch'd roofs, with pillar'd walks between—
Storied abodes within; nature's ceil'd halls—
Coal's sulphur belts,—metallic veins unseen,
Gold, iron, arteries of silver sheen,
And jewels rich with many hues, the eyes
Of purple amethyst, and emerald green,
Opal like morn, the ruby's evening dyes,
For uses here of earth, for emblems of the skies.
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VI
Come let us range the subterranean vast,Dark catacombs of ages, twilight dells,
And foot-marks of the centuries long past
Which look on us from their sepulchral cells
With speculative eyes, sea-bedded shells,
And strange anatomies of monstrous sight,
Where dark oblivion with the Mammoth dwells;—
Save dimly when tradition sheds her light,
And scares the secret realms of old primeval Night.
VII
Then glad emerge we to the cheering Day,—Some sun-ranged height, or Alpine snowy crown,
Or Chimborazo towering far away
O'er the great Andes' chain, and looking down
On flaming Cordilleras, mountain thrown
O'er mountain, vast new realms which meet our eyes,
Prairies, majestic solitudes unknown,
Rocks, rivers, plains, where Orellana lies,
And mighty oceans blend with the far mightier skies.
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VIII
Or further, where those Indian Isles adornThe marble seas of Mexico, which sweep
And bask within the New World's golden morn,
Wall'd up to Heaven with verdant-hanging steep,
Like Edens of the wave, which seem to weep
O'er fallen man, drooping on ocean's breast;—
Like flowery baskets on the glassy deep,
Or some Elysian mansions of the blest
Sailing amid the clouds that purple the bright West.
IX
O'er tracts untravers'd, woods or plain or height,Wide Orient wastes, or new Australian clime,
Man's soul expands into severe delight
Of awful ecstacy and dread sublime,
For then we pass to the new-born of time
Unconsciously in spirit, ere the rod
Of disobedience swept the tracks of crime;—
To climes that breathe fresh from the hand of God,
By mortal eye unseen, by mortal step untrod.
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X
Hail, silent contemplations far aloofFrom haunts of busy men! ye solemn Woods,
And pillar'd heights of branch-inwreathing roof,
Admit me to your shades and solitudes,
Whose towering glooms where endless Sabbath broods,
Communion move with immortality,
Symbols of holier worship, and abodes
Where the great Maker of the earth and sky
In His own House of Prayer to sinful man draws nigh.
XI
Thus God would compass with adoring awe,Embodied in o'er-arching height, where sees
The Eye unseen, and to Himself would draw;
All silence, save where the obedient breeze
Makes sublime music, as it tends the trees
That He hath planted; or the falling rill
Goes on its task with softer melodies;
Or in some lake embosom'd 'neath the hill
Blending with downward skies the shadowy groves are still.
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XII
But who shall tell their multifarious kind,Nature, and form, and purpose, endless store
Diversified, for grace or use design'd,
For flower, or fruit, or fuel, roof or floor,
Or sea-borne bark to visit foreign shore;
While each from sun, earth, water, and bright air
Its inborn law developes evermore,
And clothes itself with varied character;
Obedience, order all, and harmony is there.
XIII
The Oak, late bearing leaf, long gathering strength,Deep rooted, wide in majesty and power;
The Poplar o'er the groves in spiral length
Ascending, graceful Ash, and Cedar tower
Pyramidal, and Chestnut's orient flower;
The white-bark'd pendent Birch, sea-whispering Pine;
Lithe Aspen trembling after summer shower;
Willows that o'er the dead seem to recline;
The Ornus coral-bough'd; the solemn Palm divine.
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XIV
And now as if in some ethereal landThe branching Elms are in the morning sky,
Distinct in their proportions, while they stand,
As if expectant of some mystery
In their sublime of stillness; broad and high
Built by long years; like skeletons they rise
In nakedness of winter dark and dry;
But all the glorious summer in them lies,
And Resurrection's power conceal'd from mortal eyes.
XV
Nor less the storied Cedars standing nigh,Fresh in their wintry green above the rest,
Speak of an endless life that cannot die,
The emblem of the Just in their high nest
On Lebanon; the Palm with plumèd crest
Recumbent marks the desert's living spring,
Whose branches, when He came as Salem's guest,
Were spread 'neath feet of our Eternal King;
And now by white-robed choirs are borne where angels sing.
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XVI
Add too with countless sylvan familiesFruit-bearing kinds which in each clime abound,
Cocoa, and Fig, white Almond, vermeil eyes
Uphung on Cherry boughs, and on the ground
The Orchard hosts each its own tree around;
Pomegranate then, and Date, lone friendly child
Of dry Saharas; and thy golden round,
Orange and Citron;—tables in the wild
Before the guests were born in rude exuberance piled.
XVII
“Behold the fig-tree,”—words of hallowed lore,“Behold the fig-tree now and all the trees!”
They speak of Resurrection at the door,
And manifold in order and degrees
They set forth those on earth and in the skies,
Who drink beside the everlasting Well;—
And infinite in their diversities
In union of the Godhead ever dwell,
Three Persons and One God, One and unchangeable.
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XVIII
Varied as sounds that speak of joy or griefEach tree hath its own music with the wind,
As many-toned as note of birds; each leaf
Answers the breeze according to its kind,
As human accidents in diverse mind
Diverse affections move: varieties
Through the broad woods all form'd their place to find,
Strangely unnumber'd as the peopled skies,
They ask our love to God and plead His charities.
XIX
But who shall tell flower-tribes that fill the earth,China, Peru, or Alp,—the universe
Thick starr'd with flowery nooks? Who tell their worth
Esculent or medicinal? diverse
In use, or form, or hue? their ranks rehearse
Botanic? and alike in every place
Eden's sweet graces bowing 'neath the curse
Through orders infinite? Or who shall trace
Their language more divine within the realms of Grace?
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XX
O wondrous book of Wisdom, spread abroad,Which all may read, to whom the eye and ear
For pilgrim meet upon his heavenly road
Is given, and love their best interpreter;
E'en as a loving child doth see and hear
Each look and speaking gesture unexpress'd,
The language of a home familiar sphere
Which stranger knows not, yet well manifest
In those accustom'd ways which speak a parent's breast.
XXI
And if each seed, herb, flower, beneath our feetIs full of varied wonder, how much more
Each soul of man where God hath deign'd His seat?
And 'mid the unnumber'd multitudes that pour
In some great city, each hath its own store
Of thoughts, desires, affections; each an eye
Which with intrinsic hues and secret lore
Reflects within the omnipresent sky;
Each hath within his soul his own eternity.
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XXII
The Hand that form'd the Heavens and choirs aboveHath left His marks within each flowret's breast,
Of all-sustaining power and endless love;
And as in flowers in form and fragrant vest
Their soil, and clime, and sky is manifest;
Thus diverse characters of form and mind
On nations, tribes, and families impress'd,
Scatter distinctive wonders on each kind,
Yet hath each inner self the all-seeing Eye enshrin'd.
XXIII
Within the wayside flower there is a worldOf mystery, a very sea or sky
Of wonders in its secret bosom furl'd;
As seen by Angel's ken, or mortal eye,
When mirror'd its recesses open lie
All-spangled o'er with beauteous characters;—
Like the blue vault in its immensity
With all its constellations and bright stars,
Or ocean's purple waste alive with silvery spars.
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XXIV
It hath its galaxy, its starry Heaven,Its rainbow in the optic glass reveal'd,
And glory to the summer sunsets given,
Enclasp'd with leaves which feed, adorn, and shield,
Whose branching veins in verdant veil conceal'd
Circulate vital streams: in each leaf found
The monarch of the forest or the field
Its storied miniature spreads forth around,
Made by the Hand Divine ere planted in the ground.
XXV
Such is the mystic Lily of the Vale,White with the Bridal robe outshining kings,
With texture wove in Heaven that cannot fail,
And washèd white with Blood, by the new springs
Of Paradise, besprent with crystal rings.
Or widow'd Violet with purple hues,
In modest shades drooping its fragrant wings,
Which vernal Resurrection still renews,
And from its essence weaves with air and sunny dews.
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XXVI
Why should I speak how that mysterious flowerPurpling the Autumnal meads, its virgin head
Uplifts, as leaning on some unseen Power,
Sublime in helplessness; its wondrous seed
Hiding below within its earthly bed,
Safe from the treading hoof, or winter's breath,
Regenerate power cherish'd among the dead:
E'en like the blessed Maid of Nazareth
Shrining that Life within which dying conquer death.
XXVII
And Sharon's Rose, life's mirror, Queen of flowers,Its fragrant beauty girds around with spears,
Teaching us that a thorny fence embowers
Whate'er on earth a form of beauty rears.
But there a deeper mystery appears,
And He Who hath arisen the Only Good
Embalms to us those solemn characters;
For crown'd with thorns before mankind He stood,
In a red kingly robe, and cover'd o'er with Blood.
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XXVIII
And who shall speak of Vines that spread and spring(Mirror divine!) in sweet societies,
With cruciform embraces while they cling,
As setting forth fraternal charities,
Upward they climb, then seem among the skies
To say, “Our conversation is in Heaven;”—
With pendent drops half-hid, whose juices rise
From sour to sweet, like sense of sin forgiven,
With gold or purple gems that catch the autumnal even.
XXIX
The Corn-fields laugh and sing, on the glad plainHeaven's breath descends, the multitudes untold
Wave like the billows of the wind-swept main:
First clothe the slopes with emerald—then with gold;
Thirty or sixty or an hundred fold:
Bearing that parable unto the end,
When on a shining cloud they shall behold
The gold-crown'd Reaper to the earth descend,
And to their final task His white-wing'd servants send.
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XXX
For thus within man's heart on earth beneathLies hid the Heavenly Kingdom; first the blade
Through early frosts contending; then the sheath
Sheltering the tender flower; then ear afraid
Of winds severe or gentle, rear'd by shade
And sunshine; then the full-ranged stalk outspread,
Joy of the heart speaking of cares repaid,
As with its loaded treasure hangs the head,
In glad exuberance fill'd from one that once seem'd dead.
XXXI
The autumnal air with seeds of embryo life,Swarms numberless, in berry, shell, or fruit;
Some drop into their sepulchre, all rife
With resurrection; some as in pursuit
Of fitter place on wingèd parachute,
Or feathery hooks adhesive seek to find
Their rest; that voice Divine is never mute,
The germinating life in each enshrined,
While God a body gives according to their kind.
160
XXXII
And who shall tell the plants which arborous twineOn other's aid their marriageable dower?
Some spring aloft, like scented eglantine,
And crown with flowery tops the matted bower;
Some clasp with sinuous arms; some lift a tower
Of spiral strength; some weave the umbrageous roof
O'er sylvan green arcades; some spread a shower
Of drooping leaves abroad, or hang aloof
Pendent with tapering plumes or bristling thorny proof;—
XXXIII
Flowers intermingling, whose enamell'd streakMight vie with dripping Iris in the sky,
Or roseate colours on Aurora's cheek:
Emblems of faith some to Heaven's moving eye
Turn disk or leaf; some climb with suns on high
Westward—the Hop, the Bean, such healthful prove;
But backward twines poison's black Bryony;
Health those attends which as they climb above
Expand the Cross's form, the hallowed sign of love.
161
XXXIV
For not alone on root and leaf and flowerHath God laid colour, form, and odours sweet,
But stor'd within them medicine's healing power,
Nurse of our sorrows. Nor I deem unmeet
The warning sign, that such are made the seat
Whence poisonous cups and palsied deaths proceed,
Meet lesson, where such lures the senses cheat,
How sinful man doth circumspection need
'Mid things that are around of endless death the seed.
XXXV
Whether we climb the hills, or rove the woods,Walk by the stream, or pause by moss-grown wells,
We find our God in all their solitudes,
The Father of our Lord Who with us dwells;
It is the Speaker of the parables
That pleads unto our eyes and every sense,
Nature's sweet Gospel, which of mercy tells;
Lest we should deem of His Omnipotence
Thron'd above Heaven too high to heed our wants from thence.
162
XXXVI
O ye of little faith, consider nowThe lilies of the field; behold and see,
They neither toil nor spin, yet how they grow,
That all the East with her embroidery
Is not as one of these; and cannot ye
Yield up your cares upon that Parent's breast?
Let these your book of meditation be;
Look for your mirror in their silver vest;
Yield up to Him your lives, and in Him find your rest.
XXXVII
That wisdom which God writes in every fieldNe'er sleeps, but like good angels, wakes to dwell
About us, thro' the livelong year reveal'd;
From flower that mocks the snowy icicle,
Hung on Christ's wintry cradle, to the bell
Which lingers last on the autumnal height:
Some wake before the dawn, that love to tell,
Some softly whisper to the evening light;
The Cereus breathes the same on bosom of the night.
163
XXXVIII
Come, let me read your lessons, to the child,And to declining years; like stars on high,
With music in your voices, sweet and wild;
Yet are they all from Heaven, which, while we sigh,
Attune our thoughts to peace. “If we that die
Are thus by Him attired around your feet,
How fair that robe of immortality,
When God shall clothe the soul for Him found meet?
What fragrant balms of Heaven shall make their dying sweet?”
XXXIX
Yes, glittering fair with the celestial dew,Ye are like children speaking at our feet,
Claiming our love that we may learn of you,
And pictur'd for mankind with lessons meet,
In every place where ye his eyes may greet,
With characters that are of Paradise;
Like living jewels bearing odours sweet,
So manifold, so bright, your colour'd dyes;
What well of light within thus all your grace supplies?
164
XL
To the proud world ye are “a book that's seal'd;”To souls that stooping go, from out the ground
Like whispers from the dust ye are reveal'd:
I listen'd and I heard your voices' sound,
“All flesh is grass, as flowers with beauty crown'd
Its glory, waxing wan and withering.”
I listen'd and I heard yet more profound,
“Ye in the dust that dwell, awake and sing,
Your dew is as the dew of herbs that wait the spring.”
XLI
All flesh is grass, its glory like the flower,How soon the bloom is sere, the green is dry,
Light loving eyes that beam'd with gentle power,
Communicating thoughts of pleasantry,
And bade the pensive heart put sadness by;—
Love's fragrance shed around and purple light;
How soon survives naught in their alter'd sky,
But memories of something gone from sight,
Which like a pallid shade visits the heart at night.
165
XLII
And they that were the glory of the morn,Set up on high, hearts, eyes upon them cast,
With all things which this mortal clay adorn,
Soon change their hue 'neath the deflowering blast,
Reminding of the grave and worm at last:
Others succeed,—but their short time is o'er,
Their plans and purposes which were so vast,
With all the pleasing hopes they had in store;
The place that knew them well, it knows them now no more.
XLIII
To Angels, one by one, was given the scrollTo open, and with sound unearthly speak,
E'en so the Seasons as they onward roll
Awake prophetic voices; accents weak
Gain on the ear till they in fulness speak;
With winds that wait Thy beck, dew, rain, or rill,
That minister, and in due tendance seek
The service thus assign'd them to fulfil,
And e'en the frosts that come with wintry summons chill.
166
XLIV
Sweet symbolry! when issues Thy commandMen's summer hopes are falling to the ground,
Bared and bereav'd of all alone they stand;
Those wither'd leaves gather their roots around
To cherish and sustain, till they are found
Ready to rise in their appointed time,
Rooted in Christ. If such Thy cares abound
O'er things thus born to die, what thought sublime
Can reach Thy tender watch? what ear can catch the chime
XLV
In ways of Thy sweet Providence, that tendOn thankless man, on every plant that springs
From the dry root of Jesse without end,
For sake of that lov'd Branch which Israel sings,
Whereon the Spiritbroods with hallowed wings;—
On every tree which in that garden grows
Water'd with Blood, while night her shadow brings
On that dark vale of tears where Cedron flows,
When from the bleeding Stem the Olive graft arose.
167
XLVI
Lo, walking in the garden He hath made,The voice of God amid the trees is heard,
While on the world falls the cool evening-shade,
In awful stillness; not a sound is stirr'd,
The Trees that He hath planted speak His word;
He seeks for fruit 'neath the Fig's barren leaves,
Yet seeks in vain: while sentence is deferr'd
O'er guilty man, around all nature grieves,
And into all her shades the awful curse receives.
XLVII
And in our inmost reins knowledge awakes,Knowledge of good and evil, from us fall
The robes of Grace divine, yet mercy breaks
E'en in that Voice which doth on justice call
Amid the trees; in dark embowering hall,
And 'mid the flowery carpets strew'd beneath,
We hear the vocal symbols, great and small,
Written alike on each—which speak of death;—
And whisper that a hope survives the parting breath,
168
XLVIII
That eve hath set in darker solitude,Come ye who from the death-doom'd world would flee;
The thorn-curs'd ground is mark'd by sweat of Blood,
And Eden hath become Gethsemane.
Ye that therein would enter, come and see;—
The Angel watch sleep at that Eden's door,
And we may now approach that awful Tree,
Which was the life in Paradise of yore,
The Tree of Life!—it seems a living tree no more;—
XLIX
The wood of a dead tree that bears the Dead!This is the Tree of life, the Tree that bears
Of Everlastingness the only seed.
When in “the place of skulls” it disappears,
It shall from yonder garden fill the spheres;
Beside life's stream, the Tree which God hath made,
Crown'd with an immortality of years,
Twelve kinds of fruit, and leaves that never fade,
The nations come to rest beneath this healing shade.
169
L
Therefore from shrine of God another VoiceAll nature through her kingdoms seems to wake,
And bids the forest and the field rejoice;
The valleys laugh and sing; and for His sake
Ye hills and mountains forth in singing break,
For the Deliverer comes! And, O ye seas,
With all that moves therein, glad music make,
With your loud floods, and clap your hands, ye trees,
For through your haunts are shed diviner sympathies.
LI
Year upon year still follows, wheel in wheelReturning to itself; and evermore
The words Divine in sweet awakenings steal
O'er nature, and her sacred youth restore;
So beautiful this mansion, studded o'er
With vales, and mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas,
The prison-house of sinners: how much more
That blissful realm of which death holds the keys,
And that far better world which Thou hast hid in these?
170
LII
But that wise King who spake of every kind,—Who in the Temple where God's Presence dwells
O'er shaft and frieze the mystic lily twin'd,
Who sung of Christ in flower-fraught canticles,—
Yet fell himself from Heaven. Their syllables
Are writ on skies above, too high for man;
And rather would I note what wisdom tells,
How every work below His Eye must scan,
Who arch'd the blue-bell'd flower, and Heaven's encircling span.
| The Seven Days, or the Old and New Creation | |