Song-waves Part 5

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Her steps fall sweet as summer rain, And lull to dream the thoughts of pain,-- O glowing gra.s.s, O violet skyey, Ye hint of something of fairer grain!

She outruns sympathy of crowds; Her dwelling is above the clouds; She stoops to kiss the rose to crimson-- Her face no featureless mask enshrouds.

Her chatelaine's of amber fine; No hue of coming autumn's wine But she outpours from tawny beaker, And fills each grape of the swelling vine.

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Celestial sweetness swift outstrips The light unleashed of its eclipse!-- A fire of dew burns in her bosom, And steady glows through her eyes and lips.

She holds fair forms of ferns and seeds, Lichens and fruits and burnished reeds, And pours, in wake of mellow harvest, Splendors of flame on the leaves and weeds.

O give, give me my own of that Which sweeps and circles like the bat Around me as I walk in ether, O fair Divine, at whose feet I've sat!

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Unnumbered traits shine in thy face, Harmonious blent in Time and s.p.a.ce; Ideal of form, of tone, of color, Of thought, emotion, and deed, O Grace!

Ay me! I speak familiar words.

Thou art a presence of my Lord's!

Spirit of splendor, thou, O Beauty, That lights His brow, and that crowns and girds.

O Christ, Thou bright Heaven's Morning Star, In whom all live and move and are, Thou Chiefest, altogether lovely, Beauty in Time is Thy avatar!

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The scarlet arch of evening fills Heights o'er the vapor-laden hills With brilliant samite robes that flutter Something beneath that my spirit thrills.

O Infinite, and Whom I bless!

Glow of embodied perfectness!

O Sea of supersensuous Being, Whose tides the unutterable express!

(This, this it was that Plato saw On back of Heaven!)--Let self withdraw From this o'ermastering light and splendor, These rolling waves of a trembling awe!

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This tiny life, with exquisite wings, Is one with all earth's moving things; The light that burns in great Arcturus Is tinct with gold of our wedding rings.

In every fibre, every jot, The universe is one, I wot Great G.o.d, Thou'rt One, and we Thy offspring Can see some angles of Thy wide thought.

Thy footprints mark the ageless years, Thy hand authenticates the spheres; The voice of Time, the hush eternal, One anthem sound in Thy listening ears.

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Philosophy doth dig and draw; Instinct translateth into law,-- The universe in one G.o.d dwelling, The poet's vision forekenned with awe.

He is a seer in night of Time, Casting red foregleams in his rhyme, Of rising stars on man's horizon; Herald of truth of a choral clime,--

Impa.s.sioned truth from inward deeps, That oft like lightning sudden leaps From darkness, blazing a far pathway To hills of G.o.d, which the sunlight steeps.

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The infinite in grand repose Moves under life's tempestuous throes, As move the waters deep of ocean Far 'neath the ship when the tempest blows.

The cloud-rack streams across the sky, The breaking billows threaten high; These are Time's shadows on the voyage, And bring the infinite Presence nigh.

All sunlit seas in joyous dance Might show life but as happy chance, Nor hint of One who saves divinely,-- My faith is linked with deliverance.

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Two lives made one, the man and wife (A mystic thing to world of strife), Serenity of oneness, wholeness, Repose of love as the law of life!

Uncaught by skill of painter's art, There glows a radiance of the heart In which the naked truth, as sculpture, Is seen in colorless calm apart,--

A luminous calm of spiritual light, Dissolving drop serene of sight Oft gathering o'er the eye of reason, And robing day in the folds of night.

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The mirrored silence of this pool Reveals a world of noiseless rule.

It soothes and rests my fevered spirit-- A bath of balm of the deeps, and cool.

Still move the clouds, still wheel the skies, The aspiring tree no longer sighs,-- Fair thoughts of G.o.d, full-clothed in Heaven, All calm and beautiful in Love's eyes!

Gla.s.sed in the light of Heaven's repose, He wears perfection, like a rose!

Impatient heart, be still! Thou seest He brings His work to a perfect close.

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