The Little Book of Modern Verse Part 15

But, sure, the sky is big, I said; Miles and miles above my head; So here upon my back I'll lie And look my fill into the sky.

And so I looked, and, after all, The sky was not so very tall.

The sky, I said, must somewhere stop, And -- sure enough! -- I see the top!

The sky, I thought, is not so grand; I 'most could touch it with my hand!

And, reaching up my hand to try, I screamed to feel it touch the sky.

I screamed, and -- lo! -- Infinity Came down and settled over me; And, pressing of the Undefined The definition on my mind, Held up before my eyes a gla.s.s Through which my shrinking sight did pa.s.s Until it seemed I must behold Immensity made manifold; Whispered to me a word whose sound Deafened the air for worlds around, And brought unm.u.f.fled to my ears The gossiping of friendly spheres, The creaking of the tented sky, The ticking of Eternity.

I saw and heard, and knew at last The How and Why of all things, past, And present, and forevermore.

The universe, cleft to the core, Lay open to my probing sense That, sick'ning, I would fain pluck thence But could not, -- nay! But needs must suck At the great wound, and could not pluck My lips away till I had drawn All venom out. -- Ah, fearful p.a.w.n!

For my omniscience paid I toll In infinite remorse of soul.

All sin was of my sinning, all Atoning mine, and mine the gall Of all regret. Mine was the weight Of every brooded wrong, the hate That stood behind each envious thrust, Mine every greed, mine every l.u.s.t.

And all the while for every grief, Each suffering, I craved relief With individual desire, -- Craved all in vain! And felt fierce fire About a thousand people crawl; Perished with each, -- then mourned for all!

A man was starving in Capri; He moved his eyes and looked at me; I felt his gaze, I heard his moan, And knew his hunger as my own.

I saw at sea a great fog-bank Between two ships that struck and sank; A thousand screams the heavens smote; And every scream tore through my throat.

No hurt I did not feel, no death That was not mine; mine each last breath That, crying, met an answering cry From the compa.s.sion that was I.

All suffering mine, and mine its rod; Mine, pity like the pity of G.o.d.

Ah, awful weight! Infinity Pressed down upon the finite Me!

My anguished spirit, like a bird, Beating against my lips I heard; Yet lay the weight so close about There was no room for it without.

And so beneath the Weight lay I And suffered death, but could not die.

Long had I lain thus, craving death, When quietly the earth beneath Gave way, and inch by inch, so great At last had grown the crushing weight, Into the earth I sank till I Full six feet under ground did lie, And sank no more, -- there is no weight Can follow here, however great.

From off my breast I felt it roll, And as it went my tortured soul Burst forth and fled in such a gust That all about me swirled the dust.

Deep in the earth I rested now; Cool is its hand upon the brow And soft its breast beneath the head Of one who is so gladly dead.

And all at once, and over all, The pitying rain began to fall; I lay and heard each pattering hoof Upon my lowly, thatched roof, And seemed to love the sound far more Than ever I had done before.

For rain it hath a friendly sound To one who's six feet underground; And scarce the friendly voice or face: A grave is such a quiet place.

The rain, I said, is kind to come And speak to me in my new home.

I would I were alive again To kiss the fingers of the rain, To drink into my eyes the shine Of every slanting silver line, To catch the freshened, fragrant breeze From drenched and dripping apple-trees.

For soon the shower will be done, And then the broad face of the sun Will laugh above the rain-soaked earth Until the world with answering mirth Shakes joyously, and each round drop Rolls, twinkling, from its gra.s.s-blade top.

How can I bear it; buried here, While overhead the sky grows clear And blue again after the storm?

O, multi-colored, multiform, Beloved beauty over me, That I shall never, never see Again! Spring-silver, autumn-gold, That I shall never more behold!

Sleeping your myriad magics through, Close-sepulchred away from you!

O G.o.d, I cried, give me new birth, And put me back upon the earth!

Upset each cloud's gigantic gourd And let the heavy rain, down-poured In one big torrent, set me free, Washing my grave away from me!

I ceased; and, through the breathless hush That answered me, the far-off rush Of herald wings came whispering Like music down the vibrant string Of my ascending prayer, and -- crash!

Before the wild wind's whistling lash The startled storm-clouds reared on high And plunged in terror down the sky, And the big rain in one black wave Fell from the sky and struck my grave.

I know not how such things can be I only know there came to me A fragrance such as never clings To aught save happy living things; A sound as of some joyous elf Singing sweet songs to please himself, And, through and over everything, A sense of glad awakening.

The gra.s.s, a-tiptoe at my ear, Whispering to me I could hear; I felt the rain's cool finger-tips Brushed tenderly across my lips, Laid gently on my sealed sight, And all at once the heavy night Fell from my eyes and I could see, -- A drenched and dripping apple-tree, A last long line of silver rain, A sky grown clear and blue again.

And as I looked a quickening gust Of wind blew up to me and thrust Into my face a miracle Of orchard-breath, and with the smell, -- I know not how such things can be! -- I breathed my soul back into me.

Ah! Up then from the ground sprang I And hailed the earth with such a cry As is not heard save from a man Who has been dead, and lives again.

About the trees my arms I wound; Like one gone mad I hugged the ground; I raised my quivering arms on high; I laughed and laughed into the sky, Till at my throat a strangling sob Caught fiercely, and a great heart-throb Sent instant tears into my eyes; O G.o.d, I cried, no dark disguise Can e'er hereafter hide from me Thy radiant ident.i.ty!

Thou canst not move across the gra.s.s But my quick eyes will see Thee pa.s.s, Nor speak, however silently, But my hushed voice will answer Thee.

I know the path that tells Thy way Through the cool eve of every day; G.o.d, I can push the gra.s.s apart And lay my finger on Thy heart!

The world stands out on either side No wider than the heart is wide; Above the world is stretched the sky, -- No higher than the soul is high.

The heart can push the sea and land Farther away on either hand; The soul can split the sky in two, And let the face of G.o.d shine through.

But East and West will pinch the heart That cannot keep them pushed apart; And he whose soul is flat -- the sky Will cave in on him by and by.

Souls. [Fannie Stearns Davis]

My Soul goes clad in gorgeous things, Scarlet and gold and blue; And at her shoulder sudden wings Like long flames flicker through.

And she is swallow-fleet, and free From mortal bonds and bars.

She laughs, because Eternity Blossoms for her with stars!

O folk who scorn my stiff gray gown, My dull and foolish face, -- Can ye not see my Soul flash down, A singing flame through s.p.a.ce?

And folk, whose earth-stained looks I hate, Why may I not divine Your Souls, that must be pa.s.sionate, Shining and swift, as mine!

Fiat Lux. [Lloyd Mifflin]

Then that dread angel near the awful throne, Leaving the seraphs ranged in flaming tiers, Winged his dark way through those unpinioned spheres, And on the void's black beetling edge, alone, Stood with raised wings, and listened for the tone Of G.o.d's command to reach his eager ears, While Chaos wavered, for she felt her years Unsceptered now in that convulsive zone.

Night trembled. And as one hath oft beheld A lamp within a vase light up its gloom, So G.o.d's voice lighted him, from heel to plume: "Let there be light!" It said, and Darkness, quelled, Shrunk noiseless backward in her monstrous womb Through vasts unwinnowed by the wings of eld!

The Dreamer. [Nicholas Vachel Lindsay]

"~Why do you seek the sun, In your Bubble-Crown ascending?

Your chariot will melt to mist, Your crown will have an ending.~"

"Nay, sun is but a Bubble, Earth is a whiff of Foam -- To my caves on the coast of Thule Each night I call them home.

Thence Faiths blow forth to angels And Loves blow forth to men -- They break and turn to nothing And I make them whole again: On the crested waves of chaos I ride them back reborn: New stars I bring at evening For those that burst at morn: My soul is the wind of Thule And evening is the sign, The sun is but a Bubble, A fragile child of mine."

A Caravan from China comes. [Richard Le Gallienne]

(After Hafiz)

A caravan from China comes; For miles it sweetens all the air With fragrant silks and dreaming gums, Attar and myrrh -- A caravan from China comes.