Classic Poem

S PURR'D on, with zealous soul, to seek
Life's gospel, now unheard,
Boots it to take the mountain peak
Or covet flight of bird?
The byway too shall hear it speak—
That lost, that only Word.

I sought it long, I seek it yet,
Nor cease while life I own;
Art to attain her strength has set,
And faith of old has known;
With longing eyes by tears made wet,
I listen all alone.

The shadows of a thousand leaves
Dance in this dying light;
The Word for which my spirit grieves
On grass and moss they write;
There too the blessed zephyr weaves
The Blessed Word of might.

Old is the soul, and otherwhere
Read once with shining eyes
The Word's compounded meanings rare,
And her own mysteries;
At Nature's writings now I stare
As seer in crystal skries;

Who out of mists beholds reversed,
Inchoate shapes emerge,
And deep in waking dream immersed
Seems ever on the verge
Where very life and light shall burst,
To hallow and asperge.

Him the true life escapes, and I
The life of life in vain
From Nature's rapid writings try
To reconstruct again:
A flash comes oft to beautify,
But never to remain.

And yet—in all—the omens found
Through life and time abide;
They take me far through haunted ground
And far through ways untried;
Lost Word, thy transcripts still abound
On every country side!

Then, in those moments, rarely known,
When the soul feels her wings,
Emblazon'd upon star and stone
There flash immortal things;
Through Nature's gates, wide open thrown,
A wild voice sings and sings.

Comes secret sense through veils confess'd,
And God eludes no more,
But doth most surely manifest
And all His worlds restore:
Methinks that Word of peace and rest
High-seated saints read o'er.

Lost Word and Last Word, far and long,
Heard through the closing gate,
Dies the dim echo of thy song!
Soul, is it dark and late?
Vast is the void, though hope is strong;
We languish, but we wait.

Yes, we are waiting, I and you;
The white Kings wait enthroned;
And life's pale outcasts languish too,
Dishonour'd and disown'd,
Till that Word—searching through and through—
Be suddenly intoned.