Classic Poem

Yon dome of watery gray
That crowds us in
Is cleft with sudden flame,
And through the fiery rift
I see the larger day,
The blue beyond the mist,
The free and vast solemnities of sky.

Again the arch is split with fire—
A moment's silence—now,
With hammers of the hurricane,
The storm-king beats the mountains,
Crash on crash!
The thunders roar along the hills
The wind-flails thresh the sea.
The tumult rolls afar and dies
To distant ripples, crackling like musketry;
With engines of the tempest,
Thor is smoothing out
The crumpled parchment of the hills
To level plains.

How, like a mad witch,
The goddess of the storm
Her skirts of rain trails down the night!
Tosses dishevelled hair
Over the shoulders of the world
Till all the gray horizon mirrors
Her dark, impassioned beauty!

The trees take firmer root
To brace themselves
Against the rebel winds
That riot o'er the lands.
Before the flood
The sand foundations glide away
And leave bed-rock
On which faith builds new eras.

War-floods sweep the world;
Men stare across the lands,
Tremble, and think of God.
Tempests rise out of dreams,
New ages dawn, and in the end,
The better dream prevails.

Our lives are one
With the Great Heart
That thunders in the height—
We share the storm with Him.
Our souls are tranquil, therefore,
Though the world be swept with fire.
The blast that breaks
The fortress of the flesh
Shall lift us on its breath
To higher vision, wider vistas,
Holier dreams.

The silken veils
Are torn from Psyche's pinions;
A new life floats
Into the light,
The heart leaps to great hope
And splendid purpose
Dawns from new dreams.

Friend of the steadfast heart,
When day is done
And night falls westward
After all these stern restraints of will,
In that glad hour
When kind, mysterious Death
Rides down the wind
And hurricanes of flame
Unloose our wings
To the free life beyond,
Then crush me to your heart
And I will fold you
As a flower to mine
Before the face of God.
And we shall mount
In chariot of the blast
To heights of ecstasy and power,
The stern, dark beauty of the sky
Unveiled to open view
In one tremendous storm-betrothal
To Love's immortal youth.

And I shall see your face,
Your star-blue eyes
And glinting hair;
Shall hear your voice
As in the former days
In the Canadian wilds.
In that new love-land of our dream,
Where violet-odours
With the wild thrush-music blend
Beside the singing streams,
I'll lay Love's aureole upon your brow
And love you as I love you now.