Prince Amadis: 131ÔÇô140
CXXXI.
Then for change would he seek the least jewels of night,
The gardens of crystal that swing into sight
Every year, 'twixt the lines on which Jupiter rolls,
And Mars with the white cap of snow on his poles.
CXXXII.
He saw little earth hold its atmosphere down,
While space-matter strove the poor orb to uncrown;
Outside its crisp top he hung poised in the sky
To see with what fleetness the planet flew by.
CXXXIII.
In all the wide worlds, great and little, he saw,
With sweet re-assurance one beautiful law, —
That each world to itself its own centre should seem,
An honest untruth, a self-realized dream.
CXXXIV.
He saw that the people's large language was better
Than the phrases of science, and for common use meeter;
For thus all the orbs, through the vastness that roam,
Feel themselves in each nook of creation at home.
CXXXV.
For what is each heart, wheresoe'er it may live,
But the centre of all the love God has to give,
As dear to its Father, whatever its station,
As if it by itself were the whole of creation?
CXXXVI.
O Prince! hast thou not in thy heart some misgiving
Of the centreless life that thy selfwill is living?
For where self is the centre, all life is abroad,
Unrooted in home, and unfastened to God.
CXXXVII.
O good for the soul is the merciful strain
Of a grave obligation; still better the pain
Of repentance, whose tears are professions of faith
In the God who forgives, in the life after death.
CXXXVIII.
Then wander no longer, thou sunshiny cloud!
With thy shadow just dappling the fields on thy road;
Weep away to the earth in soft rain, and the shower
Shall at least make one green spot more green than before.
CXXXIX.
Life that lives for itself in an unrooted youth
Must one day do penance for all its untruth,
Must revenge on itself what it slighted before,
In old age cast away on a desolate shore.
CXL.
There are plants in the woods of Brazil, parasites,
Who give out their fragrances only at nights,
Fresh rooted each moment in wandering airs,
Which are solid enough for such thin roots as theirs.
Then for change would he seek the least jewels of night,
The gardens of crystal that swing into sight
Every year, 'twixt the lines on which Jupiter rolls,
And Mars with the white cap of snow on his poles.
CXXXII.
He saw little earth hold its atmosphere down,
While space-matter strove the poor orb to uncrown;
Outside its crisp top he hung poised in the sky
To see with what fleetness the planet flew by.
CXXXIII.
In all the wide worlds, great and little, he saw,
With sweet re-assurance one beautiful law, —
That each world to itself its own centre should seem,
An honest untruth, a self-realized dream.
CXXXIV.
He saw that the people's large language was better
Than the phrases of science, and for common use meeter;
For thus all the orbs, through the vastness that roam,
Feel themselves in each nook of creation at home.
CXXXV.
For what is each heart, wheresoe'er it may live,
But the centre of all the love God has to give,
As dear to its Father, whatever its station,
As if it by itself were the whole of creation?
CXXXVI.
O Prince! hast thou not in thy heart some misgiving
Of the centreless life that thy selfwill is living?
For where self is the centre, all life is abroad,
Unrooted in home, and unfastened to God.
CXXXVII.
O good for the soul is the merciful strain
Of a grave obligation; still better the pain
Of repentance, whose tears are professions of faith
In the God who forgives, in the life after death.
CXXXVIII.
Then wander no longer, thou sunshiny cloud!
With thy shadow just dappling the fields on thy road;
Weep away to the earth in soft rain, and the shower
Shall at least make one green spot more green than before.
CXXXIX.
Life that lives for itself in an unrooted youth
Must one day do penance for all its untruth,
Must revenge on itself what it slighted before,
In old age cast away on a desolate shore.
CXL.
There are plants in the woods of Brazil, parasites,
Who give out their fragrances only at nights,
Fresh rooted each moment in wandering airs,
Which are solid enough for such thin roots as theirs.
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