Christ's Company and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Nothing has come to the night except the moon:
I see her now; the black and heavy clouds
Rustle in foam before her, tossed and strewn,
As when at first God's word the clammy crowds,
Half mist, half water, and all ghost, upfroze,
And bared for man the nether firmament
Between the sea and sky, what time the rent

II

Clouds like a garment parted from it, and close
The dark fogs sauntered earthwards; now as soon
Yon clouds part upwards, downwards; and outflows
Vast amber, and the night in happy boon
Is happy now, solemn and clear and cold;
And full of happy love, broods love—possessed
O'er the dark world, like dove upon her nest.

III

And I am happy now, so manifold
The past is, and the present so serene:
Thought I my soul was ready for the gold
Of visions? but they come not; therefore e'en
As ever, let me think to keep my soul
Fixed on the whole circumference, which weds
The centre ever to itself, and spreads

IV

In light like waves for ever; on the whole
Of love in love divinely multiplied;
Not generated in the onward roll
Of ages, though to men 'tis centuried;
But rather in all points of time perfected,
As in the bosom of the mind divine,
So in the thoughts of life which thence outshine;

V

And thirdly, in the sparkles thence deflected
Into the bosom of this world of man;
In oracles and laws of grace connected
Through the six ages; God alone, who can
Know how the stream of time doth measure round
Into a breathing circle held within—
The eternal circle which doth both begin

VI

And end it; He alone can know the sound
Which that glad circle in its rounding makes
In both my ears: for say, was I not found
In the blest bosom of that love, which slakes
Our human thirst, when all the rest at gaze
With distant eyes were murmuring, Is it I?
Lord, is it I? And think ye no reply

VII

Did make me nearer to the hidden ways
Of love, no response beat into my ear
From that deep heart which pulsed the awful rays
To the eyes beneath whose curve I did upsteer
My reverend gaze, whilst holding solemn state
In the upper room;—no benediction pressed
Like a spear's head of bliss into my breast?

VIII

Yea, truly, as I then beheld elate
The very form itself of love indeed;
And comprehended in a moment's fate
That which all comprehending doth exceed,
By science all incomprehensible;
Incomprehensible things comprehending,
So ever since that saintly ray's first sending

IX

The bliss renews itself in visions still,
And urges me for ever to aspire
To that great knowledge which drew out my will
To ecstasy, as fire to flame draws fire;
And thus last night the triple period
Saw I of love; beheld I love in man,
In angels, and in God; that love began

X

In agony, lived in service, but in God
Existed in a wise no tongue may tell;
That, as flowers issue from the underclod,
Man's anguish gives angelic love its shell
Of service; whence the angels owe to man
Much bliss; of love and anguish God doth mix
Peace, which He gives His world in golden pyx.

XI

I saw last night three boding crows which ran
Before my feet; I followed, and they sped
Their flight; I followed still each flapping van,
That washed like nearer waves above my head,
Like nearer waves of the dark sea of night,
Almost against my face their raven spray,
As down I followed by a narrow way.

XII

I saw a garden full of flowers so bright,
That emeralds set around deep ruby dyes,
And seed of pearl in golden agraffes pight,
To them were dim; the lion's glowing eyes
Reflected on the tiger's head and tongue
Were dim: with starry glow their dartles burst
The night mists, and with purple grain traversed.

XIII

I saw where some were red as glutted prong,
To which the blood doth cling in ruddy beads,
Sanguinely gleaming, with jagged leaves and long,
And whispered one another round the meads,
Which held in fiery travail all their wrath:
I would have asked if they would wake all night,
But got no answer, for to my affright

XIV

Those were not crows: unto an inner path,
Which greenly wound within the sanguine belt,
A shining serpent lured me; he his bath
Chose in the coolest green, whose sweets he smelt,
And there beheld the gecko with his spots
Move sideways underneath the crumbling frond,
Where the white woody fibres blazed the bond

XV

Hit in the scrannel wind-bit knees and knots;
That serpent flew upon the gecko, swift
As evil thoughts do fly on evil thoughts:
The lizard both its stings at once did lift
At head and tail; while, circling it, the lithe
Wheel of the serpent surged and spun and quaked,
The lizard shuddering like a body naked

XVI

In hues of fear, which down his corse did writhe,
Alternating in motion, till the snake
Struck, and the gecko stung, each almost blithe
To feel the wounds such threatening could make.
Thus they two fought together, till I saw
What I do say, that they did bite and clip
And poison one another, till the whip

XVII

Of fury wrought against their nature's law;
Immingled each in each they lay deformed,
Each of his own dimension; then the maw
Of the dragon 'gan to hiss, the snake outwormed
Into the dragon's head and double tail;
Thus they transchanged their natures, and again
The snake pursued, the gecko fled in vain.

XVIII

Then from the venom, which did foam and fail
Into the ground, my trembling eyeballs saw
A straight and pulp-leaved shoot spring up, and trail
A hurtful form in the thick air, and draw
Its rankness to the rotten soil beneath:
It grew with bristly spots of hair, whose tops
Bore berries green, gathered in pending drops,

XIX

In act to fall from out their careless sheath,
Like caterpillars curled in greenish balls
Before they loose from plants their greedy teeth:
This plant grew upwards as a serpent crawls,
And like a lizard was its lateral bend,
And in its substance 'twas a man; its face
Dwelt upon wickedness, so crafty base,

XX

I thought a mandrake would itself extend
No other way from its old womb of earth;
Then saw I that this belt of green did trend
With growths no other than had had their birth
From the dull strife of those two venomed things:
Very satyrs did they hurtle in the press,
And shouldered one another motionless,

XXI

Tempting me: one I grasped through all its stings,
And crushed my hand into its pulpy cells;
But soon drew back in horror, for two wings
Whirred out and shrieked above me, and the bells
Wept in white tears, to which a thousand flies
Flew, and would blacken them with swarming specks,
Before the night could feel white tears to vex

XXII

Her wicked heart: these wings whirred circle-wise
Above me, and I cannot tell till now
What wings they were; I give you this surmise,
That they did spring out of the wounded bough,
As from Medusa's blood the father sprung
Of half the Grecian fiends; then did I flee
From that green hideous belt, and sheltered me

XXIII

In a white brake beyond a space of dung,
Which wound within the green belt; there I walked
Softly awhile before I felt the lung
Of the deep night breathe on the lengthy stalked
Flowers, faintly faring in their families:
As white were these as those I left were green,
And bathed in pearl-white light; and as the scene

XXIV

Of the broad moon, o'erhanging its own rise,
Were to be peopled by the swarming brood
Of larvas, lenures, and anatomies,
Which should o'ercross her, and remain subdued,
Tortured and writhing in the searching beam;
So saw I o'er these flowers so smoothly hewn
A great light rising whiter than the moon,

XXV

So did the fogs and mists take heart to gleam
Round that white fire, but could not live upon 't;
So did the bats and owls leave their night theme
And ramp and scream, but could not bear to haunt
Upon it, but whirred madly up and down,
And all the ground was fell alive with snakes,
So that great terror seized me in the brakes,

XXVI

And I went forward towards that light'ning crown
Over the innumerous ghostly flowers of night;
Until I reached it, and beheld full blown
A mighty flower of flowers dressed in white,
In very heart of that translucent flame,
Without one leaf it rose up from the ground,
And gloriously issued in its white flower round.

XXVII

Then even as I looked that flower became
A glorious lady, standing in meek pride,
Upon whose front, “called out of Misraim,”
I read, written in blood: “I am the Bride
Won by my knight Christ with the sword of wood,
The thorns, the nails, the spear.” She spoke, and her
Two hands fell round the cross, her ransomer.

XXVIII

Upon the lotus of her face I stood
Long meditating; while I scanned her robes
Of whitest samite, striped with stripes like blood,
And partly soiled with ashes, sad as Job's,
Whom Satan did reprove with many a stroke;
And all the seam was wrought with little crosses
Of brightest flame, which pierced little bosses

XXIX

Of hearts that seemed like eyes, and wept and spoke.
Her form was beautiful and wondrous tall,
Her eyes were like half-moons in cloudy smoke,
Her height was as a pillar in a wall,
Her hair was as a flowery banner free,
Her glory like a fountain in the rocks,
Her graciousness like vines to tender flocks,

XXX

Her eyes like lilies shaken by the bees,
Her hair a net of moonbeams in a cloud,
Her thinness like a row of youngling trees,
And golden bees hummed round her in a crowd,
And “pascit inter lilia,” she sung.
Her voice was as the sound of water borne
From draw-wells deep, and poured among the corn.

XXXI

Then I, “Ah, loose to me that heavenly tongue,
And tell me what it is that I have seen,
Ah, spouse, ah, sister of my Lord, upstrung
In spirit have I reached the very queen,
As many times before in other scene
Thou hast enlightened me with heavenly mien,
Now mayest thou also to thy servant deign.

XXXII

“Now tell me what the triple belt doth mean,
With the three kinds of flowers, red, green, and white;
And wherefore dost thou tarry here, serene,
Who mightest worship in the very height
Beside the rainbow, most blessed?” She sung, “Behold
I feed among the lilies, and they grow
Again, without the sense of any woe.”

XXXIII

With temperate joy her smile rose gently cold,
As if the wind should bid a sough-reed work
Its circle-ripples in the water-wold;
“I am God's love in anguish in the mirk
Plains which the king of hell usurped, and hath;
And not my lilies do I comfort only,
But every flower, bell-formed, long-leaved, or conely.

XXXIV

“The ruddy flowers are sons of strife and wrath,
Right seldom do they see the praise of God;
The green flowers flourish but for Satan's swath,
God doth not bid them occupy the sod:
Yet one time shall I dwell among them, fain
To stay their greenness from its venom food,
And Christ's true mysteries shall purge their blood.

XXXV

“The white flowers are my children, by the rain
Of blood and water nourished; they are sad
And faint, thou seest; but they have life in pain:
Hereafter shalt thou view me pure and glad,
Yea, throned and gloried in the Seraphin,
My ministers, who guard me in their guise;
Christ's body hath chief glory in the skies.”

XXXVI

Those golden bees, which all this time within
Reach of her balmy breath clung murmuringly,
Like dance of gnats, which in the morning spin
Their maze beneath some widely spreading tree,
In spite of all the spider's cruel eyes,
And dare not venture forth their wanderings
Lest the new air should damp their gauzy wings.

XXXVII

These golden bees in such a wondrous wise
Did now increase their lustre, and about
That dame did flash such splendid ministries,
And spun with such swift motion, that their rout
Dazzled her from my eyesight clean away;
Nor aught could I discern a little space,
But groped in darkness, with a stumbling pace

XXXVIII

Leaving that spot and tottering on my way,
Until I felt my garment drag behind
Over rough stones; and there knelt I to pray,
And there the freshness of a river wind
Rise to my face, and on my hands and knees
I leaned, and felt cold water creep along,
Up to my wrists, the while a mighty gong

XXXIX

Burst awfully from out the very breeze:
At length I could look up, and to a sea
Of fire wavetops; not wavetops of these seas
Ægean, white wavetops or black; the lee
Shore where I stood received a fiery train
Of phosphor billows, which did seethe so free,
They made that river boundless as the sea.

XL

Then leaped I in, impelled by secret pain;
This was the way in which I won the heaven;
The many billows heard my breath complain,
Then bore me downwards with a mighty steven:
Like a pale man just dead, in peace my corse
Rolled downwards like a log o'ercharged with weeds
To where the widening river bed recedes

XLI

Into the ocean; there the tidal force
Cast me upon this island lone and drear,
When as I oped mine eyes I saw the course
Of heaven begin: a mountain rose i' the air
Cut with strict stairs of jasper, and along
Its windings downwards coming did I see
A heavenly throng in glorious panoply.

XLII

Yea, that great glory sweeping in a throng
Of aureoles before me; saints were there
Bowed till their wings o'ercrossed them; while a song
Streamed from their lips apart, which never were
Stirred from that curve of rapture tremulous;
And they rose heads o'er heads, on high, on high,
Gold, golden glory, to the verge of sky;

XLIII

From which they issued multitudinous;
Wherein appeared a glow of ruby bright,
And clear sweet sapphire; 'twas the very house
Of veiling; whence on all the raiment white,
On golden glories and on golden hair
Spread thickly like a golden fleece about
On virgin shoulders, and so threaded out

XLIV

On lilies with their gold crowns crumbled fair,
And solemn leaves curled with some thought severe,
Or heads bowed forward with the weight of prayer,
On heads uplifted backwards to revere,
Streamed forth a mighty blessing from above,
Streamed forth a splendour from the ruby red,
And a great pureness from the sapphire dread.

XLV

Ranged row on row they come; the light of love
Burned softly in their eyes, row ranged on row
Of men in heavenly panoply, a grove
Of violet plumes and lifted swords; below
And through, 'twixt arm and shoulder, and between
Plumed helm and helm, wild eyes and golden hair
And passionate lips; with throngings here and there,

XLVI

The goodly people of that heavenly queen,
Blessedest, sweetest, holiest, fairest, all;
Unto me and below me as I ween,
Whilst I beyond them upwards to the wall
Of heaven did gaze, where as if unawares
A mystery passed in the light of light
Along the whole length of the heaven's height.

XLVII

The wall rose solemnly in many squares,
Of scarlet brick, above a moated space
Of water clear; and by unending stairs
This company was crossing to my place,
Their splendours ever reaching lower and lower,
I gazing higher and higher, for my chin
An angel lifted, and 'twas from within

XLVIII

His golden wings that veiled his sight that hour,
That I too looked and saw a mystery
Proceed, while mightily shone out the flower
Of the gold wings upon the violet sky,
Came in their battles, all the seraphim
With giant plumes, with glory-beaming eyes,
Long bands and wrapping robes, in solemn guise,

XLIX

Came Michael, and an army followed him;
His sword, two-handed, carried he before,
His vast eyes on the hilt, his shield's broad rim
Swung half of it behind him; in the score
Of his knights followed all the cherubim;
And half the stars shone in his banner wide
And in it all the winds were multiplied.

L

Came Gabriel, with his banner over him,
White lilies, brass-bright flowers, and leaves of green;
A lily, too, he carried seemed to brim,
With golden flames, which mounted pure and clean
To touch his blessed mouth, and then would trim
Themselves within the lily leaf again:
Gabriel's fair head sank even with dream-pain

LI

Came Raphael, and an army followed him;
His staff was in his hand, as he strode on;
His gourd was slung behind; one mighty limb
Showed itself bare in passing; and upon
His track came many a knightly palmer grim:
On horses these, their horses well beseen
As those who fight on earth for heaven's queen.

LII

Came Uriel, and his banner over him—
Red-pointed flames that lightened on the field
Of steadfast judgment, sapphirine, till dim
The eyesight, and the brain behind it reeled;
Behind him walked the strong robed seraphim;
A roll and book in his two hands he bore,
At which great trembling all my entrails tore.

LIII

Came Chamuel, and his banner over him,
Half red, half blue, and barred with golden bars;
Upon a seat of cloud he seemed to swim,
Red, yellow, grey, and passed across the stars;
Across his knees, in both his hands, a slim,
Long quivering rod, with sword leaves at the end;
Chamuel went swiftly, seeming to ascend.

LIV

Came Jophiel, and an army followed him:
In his right hand a sword gleamed sharp and clear,
Whose edge he felt with his left hand, and grim
Smiled he to find it biting very sheer;
His thousands thronged behind of seraphim,
Armed likewise all; his fiery footsteps cleft
The little white clouds on the pathway weft.

LV

Come Zadkiel, and an army followed him;
Closed were their hands, and wings half shut to sail;
Grey and much crimson seemed their vesture, dim,
Much like a dream, as when the light doth fail
In melancholy wrack and crimson bar
Above a storm; his army flitted on
Like falling leaves; some sadness, all were gone.

LVI

These all went solemnly, as if to war;
The seven archangels, with his army each;
They drifted in their march away, till far
In the blind sky together in one reach,
Like a great flight of birds: I watching, saw
Their great pavilions set far off like palls,
Beyond the utmost circle of heaven's walls.

LVII

High to the west three cloudlike palls I saw;
The highest, foamy flakes of gray and rose;
The next long strips of blue with saffron flaw;
The last of gray, and over it clear glows
Of yellow vapour: 'neath them all a vast
Blue lake, and under it a long grey shore,
And so another lake, paler; then more

LVIII

Of long gray shore, with pale fire-fringe, that passed
Beneath it, folding in another lake
Of water blue; and to grim hills at last,
Whose upper parts were white with many a flake
Of shining lava; and their slopes were gray,
And ended in the earth with one great wild
Border of lurid suphur triply piled.

LIX

Thither did all God's angels pass away,
And then a voice cried, Woe, Jerusalem:
And by this time I saw myself; I say,
Could see myself the way that I saw them,
Drawn by my two arms upwards, lifted straight
Upward, and laid upon a thick red cloud,
Like blood soaked into snow, and overbowed

LX

By horrid frost, and bruised by heavy weight:
How weak was I with visions, O Lord God,
Not having eaten for so long! my fate
Alone of men to quake beneath the rod
Of coming woes; yea still to gaze and hear
The four beasts answer even where I lay,
And great cloud angels rend themselves away

LXI

From the four corners of my cloudy bier:
Above which rose the great white throne, and shook
And muttered like a cauldron: deadly near
It was; and straight the senses all forsook
This trunk; like as when foam spreads heavily
On tides, some spume clings in a small shore-bay
Some little time, so clung I where I lay.

LXII

I and my cloud: the rest was mystery.
Oh, humble heart, forbear to speak at all;
Yet verily the love-beam beamed on me.
Then like a rainbow did that lady call,—
“For ever shalt thou teach God's love to man
In wondrous fulness both of joy and pain,
Apostle of the Lamb that once was slain,

LXIII

“And prophet thou !—apostle, thou dost scan
The round of love in triple period,
Prophet—not any prophet is so wan—
Tell out the vials of the wrath of God.”
I gather that beyond these coasts Ægean
Beyond this little world of Greeks, where nought
But man exists, nor knowledge save of thought,

LXIV

The throne of love waves in the empyrean,
In angel clouds, flame hues, sharp crystal wracks;
In mountain spears uplifted as a pæan,
In mighty rivers sent through golden tracks,
In lands unknown, where, yet a little while
And men shall pray: lo, now, a sorrow-smile,
The purple cloud swells over isle and isle.