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59
THE RAINBOW IN THE VICTORIA FALLS.
(SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE.)
Did you see? did you tremble, and stand astonished, and fear
To move, or murmur a word, or draw too near?
Did you feel an instinct, in awful longing and dread,
To take the shoes from your feet, or the covering from your head?
To move, or murmur a word, or draw too near?
Did you feel an instinct, in awful longing and dread,
To take the shoes from your feet, or the covering from your head?
Did life, and its little pleasures, and empty days,
Sink out of sight, as with rapt forgetful gaze,
In the falling river's earth-shaking thunder-roar,
You drank that vision of heaven, a dream for evermore?
Sink out of sight, as with rapt forgetful gaze,
In the falling river's earth-shaking thunder-roar,
You drank that vision of heaven, a dream for evermore?
60
In the misty spray that jewelled cirque has hung
All sunny hours, since our old earth was young.
Why is it made so wonderful? why should it be?
Who has cared for it? who has fared for it desert and sea?
All sunny hours, since our old earth was young.
Why is it made so wonderful? why should it be?
Who has cared for it? who has fared for it desert and sea?
Has it no myth memorial, no renown
Of some proud banished god, who flung his crown
Beneath the waters, or hung it there, a prize
For who could reach it, a goal for dreaming enterprise?
Of some proud banished god, who flung his crown
Beneath the waters, or hung it there, a prize
For who could reach it, a goal for dreaming enterprise?
Has it no altar built to it? Has no race,
Just risen out of the dust, seen there the face
Of its first-known god, and crept to a higher light
By motions of reverence, born of that soul-waking sight?
Just risen out of the dust, seen there the face
Of its first-known god, and crept to a higher light
By motions of reverence, born of that soul-waking sight?
We who are wiser, is it our loss or gain,
That we cannot worship it, cannot soothe the pain
Of a wistful wonder by bowing before its face,
Or hallowing for it there a human dwelling-place?
That we cannot worship it, cannot soothe the pain
Of a wistful wonder by bowing before its face,
Or hallowing for it there a human dwelling-place?
61
Alas! we can reason about it—explain its cause,
Till its individual beauty is lost in “laws,”
Till we lose the sense of a Being, and see an “effect,”
Think how an artist would paint it, and all that is higher neglect.
Till its individual beauty is lost in “laws,”
Till we lose the sense of a Being, and see an “effect,”
Think how an artist would paint it, and all that is higher neglect.
And yet, touch fact with fancy, and think that there
A million million of jewels are hung in the air
One infinitesimal moment; and each of them
Is but a drop of water, but burns as a dazzling gem,
A million million of jewels are hung in the air
One infinitesimal moment; and each of them
Is but a drop of water, but burns as a dazzling gem,
Ruby and emerald, sapphire, chrysoprase,
Set by a master of jewel-craft in its place;
Each tithe of a second's space that loveliness
Is made and unmade, yet it seems to hang there motionless!
Set by a master of jewel-craft in its place;
Each tithe of a second's space that loveliness
Is made and unmade, yet it seems to hang there motionless!
May thought not outrun knowledge? May we not dream,
What if the souls of men catch thus the gleam
Of the glory of God, just for life's space, and earth
Wear such a rainbow ring as that wondrous water-birth?
What if the souls of men catch thus the gleam
Of the glory of God, just for life's space, and earth
Wear such a rainbow ring as that wondrous water-birth?
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