Classic Poem

LA SCINTILLA .

" I LIE in the shadow of the Earth. "
Said I to my Soul,
" In the depths of mine abysmal birth;
And the Darkness is deep on my house and my hearth:
There is not a star, — there is not a spark, —
And my life it is exceeding dark,
My life is very dark. "

" O say not so! O say not so! "
(Said the Voice of my Soul,)
" For the Dawn will come and the Night will go:
Nay, nay, there is even now a glow
On the vast Altar of the Night, —
There's a glimpse of the coming Light,
A gleam of the Heavenly Light! "

" It is the mock-light of a dream! "
Said I to my Soul,
" The torch-wraith of the marish stream,
Or only the dying glow-worm's gleam! —
My Hearth is cold and my Altar stark,
The earth is cold and the heavens are dark,
All dark, — all cold and dark. "

" O say not so! O say not so! " —
(Said the Voice of my Soul,)
And she spake in a tone as sweet and low
As the first faint murmur and lapse and flow
Of the dawning Day to the dying Night,
" Behold, there is even now a Light —
A little Spark of Light! "

" Alas, dear Soul, and alas for me! "
Said I to my Soul,
" Alas, for an eye that cannot see,
And alas, for a bliss that can never be!
'T is but the phosphor's fitful spark
That will vanish away and leave it dark,
And leave it just as dark. "

" O nay! For it surely is not so! "
(Said the Voice of my Soul,)
And the wreath of an arm as white as snow
Was woven around me! And lo, and lo!
As she spake, it came in sight!
And behold, it was the Living Light,
A Spark of the Living Light!

" Is it the gleam and the glamoury, "
Said I to my Soul,
" Of a starry Eyebeam that I see?
O tell me, — what? — what can it be? "
And I looked again: and behold. The Spark
Shone out like a little face in the dark,
Like a Little Face in the dark!

" O it is not an eye-beam that we see, "
Said the Voice of my Soul!
" But the Beam of The Little Soul, " said she,
" That is gone to its Immortality!
And that cometh down at the dead of The Night,
To guide us up to the Gates of Light,
To the Fountain-head of Light! "

" Then Come! and with it let us go! "
Said I to my Soul:
And she raised me up in her arms of snow!
And the Darkness vanished in a glow
Of rapture unspeakable from our sight!
And the Universe was a flood of Light,
Of Harmony and Light!