 | Love-Songs |  |
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TO THE UNIVERSE GOD.
I
O God who broodest o'er the ocean spaces,And shinest in the gold-winged glimmering cars
Wherein night's steeds are yoked for heaven-high races,—
Splendid amid the cream-white hosts of stars,
Divine and fragrant in all flowery places,
Awful where red-lipped War his pale bride chases,
Glory his white-lipped bride
Through battle's foaming tide,—
Great God serene amid the bloodless faces
Of all the outstretched dead,
And golden on the head
That shines with girlish golden hair and graces
Some half-grown rosebud girl,—
And foam-white in the curl
Of waves that scour the sand with ravenous paces,—
Oh lift the yearning world, swift day by day,
With sweet victorious pulse along its stedfast way!
II
Thou art in heaven and in the utter deepOf fiery flame-winged hell, and in the light
Of suns and moons and in the spotless sleep
Of children,—in their glances clear and bright:
Thou art in the golden corn the reapers reap,
And in the thundering cataracts that leap
Along the shaking rocks;
Thou art in the snow-white flocks
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With laughter through the panes;
Thou art in the blood-red stains
Of crime, and in all daring deeds that keep
Earth's tidal waters pure;
And through sin's groves obscure
Thou passest as a breeze with wings that weep,—
In all the vales of earth and in the sky
Thy white strange glory, God, we, worshipping, descry.
III
But, most of all, thou shinest in the fairSplendour of man and in the tender heart
Of woman, and in love's rose-gladdened air:
All loveless souls thou piercest with thy dart,
Through passionless pale flesh thine arrows tear,
And cowardly souls thou tanglest in a snare,—
Thou scourgest them until
Thou hast thy final will,
Yea, till the fruits of flower-sweet love they bear;
Thou art within the rose
Of love when first it glows,
A joy, a deep delight, a wonder rare;
Thou art within the bloom
Of passion, a perfume
That brings the utter peace of heaven's hope there;
Thou hast thy crown eternal in the power
Whereby all budding loves burst into burning flower.
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