Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold By "F. Harald Williams"[i.e. F. W. O. Ward]. First Edition |
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WHITE WORDS. |
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 | Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold |  |
WHITE WORDS.
There was worship in heaven and wonder on earth
When the white queen of purity spoke,
And the pauper forgot all the bondage of dearth,
While the ashes leapt up and awoke,
As they broke
Into beauty and blossom of fire;
The dead hearts renewed ancient desire,
And wan maidens their snowy attire;
For her voice had the glamour and gladness of truth
And the thoughts were themselves all in rhyme
With the dew and delight and enchantment of youth
And the infinite story of time.
When the white queen of purity spoke,
And the pauper forgot all the bondage of dearth,
While the ashes leapt up and awoke,
As they broke
Into beauty and blossom of fire;
The dead hearts renewed ancient desire,
And wan maidens their snowy attire;
For her voice had the glamour and gladness of truth
And the thoughts were themselves all in rhyme
With the dew and delight and enchantment of youth
And the infinite story of time.
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Not the words of our wisdom the fair and the fit,
Not the speech of the reverend sage
With his splendour of learning and sparkle of wit,
In the mellowing harvest of age;
Not a page
From the richest resultings of years;
But a music that fell on the ears,
With the babble of song birds and tears;
And the voice of the spirit that pierces the soul
As the arrow that goes to its mark,
And brings back to the deaf their departed control
With a murmur of morn in the dark.
Not the speech of the reverend sage
With his splendour of learning and sparkle of wit,
In the mellowing harvest of age;
Not a page
From the richest resultings of years;
But a music that fell on the ears,
With the babble of song birds and tears;
And the voice of the spirit that pierces the soul
As the arrow that goes to its mark,
And brings back to the deaf their departed control
With a murmur of morn in the dark.
From her lips flew the message of virginal life,
A new ministry breathed in old names
On the hardness and squalor of bestial strife,
And the vilest of shadows and shames;
Winged flames,
That set animal natures aglow
With a freshness no art could bestow.
As if heaven surged up from below;
Crystal flakes which alit on the petrified rest
With a soft'ning appeal, and were such
That they kindled at once the dull stone of the breast
Into glory and grace with their touch.
A new ministry breathed in old names
On the hardness and squalor of bestial strife,
And the vilest of shadows and shames;
Winged flames,
That set animal natures aglow
With a freshness no art could bestow.
As if heaven surged up from below;
Crystal flakes which alit on the petrified rest
With a soft'ning appeal, and were such
That they kindled at once the dull stone of the breast
Into glory and grace with their touch.
Words of hope from the depths of an infinite joy,
Like the whisper of Spring in the air,
That just seemed as they dropt to consume the alloy
And the evil of all things not fair—
To repair
What was broken with promise of dawn,
And its colours of paradise drawn
On gray brothel as on the green lawn;
For she spoke as a queen who has passed beyond hell
And yet carries the scorching and stain,
And has tasted all sacraments trial can tell
Being crowned with the crowning of pain.
Like the whisper of Spring in the air,
That just seemed as they dropt to consume the alloy
And the evil of all things not fair—
To repair
What was broken with promise of dawn,
And its colours of paradise drawn
On gray brothel as on the green lawn;
For she spoke as a queen who has passed beyond hell
And yet carries the scorching and stain,
And has tasted all sacraments trial can tell
Being crowned with the crowning of pain.
Warm white words from the fountain of love and the light
Freely scattered as jewels on all,
That were seeds of a manhood to come in its might,
The auguster because of its fall
And the pall;
For she uttered herself, and the blind
Yet in her did their heritage find,
And partook of that beautiful mind;
She came down to the sorrow and down to the sin,
She was one with the feeble and faint,
She revealed to the meanest the marvels within,
And in rags the sweet aureoled saint.
Freely scattered as jewels on all,
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The auguster because of its fall
And the pall;
For she uttered herself, and the blind
Yet in her did their heritage find,
And partook of that beautiful mind;
She came down to the sorrow and down to the sin,
She was one with the feeble and faint,
She revealed to the meanest the marvels within,
And in rags the sweet aureoled saint.
Ah, they listened to her, the poor, starving and stained
As they drank in the music of hope,
While the captives remembered no more they were chained,
And the murderer saw not the rope,
But the slope.
That leads up to blue roses of skies,
As he gazed with his red rheumy eyes,
And beheld a new Eden arise;
For the halt, and the maimed, and the crippled in heart
Everyone found some quickening tone,
A new life that sent shoots through the sickliest part
Within each, as for each all alone.
As they drank in the music of hope,
While the captives remembered no more they were chained,
And the murderer saw not the rope,
But the slope.
That leads up to blue roses of skies,
As he gazed with his red rheumy eyes,
And beheld a new Eden arise;
For the halt, and the maimed, and the crippled in heart
Everyone found some quickening tone,
A new life that sent shoots through the sickliest part
Within each, as for each all alone.
| Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold | |