Classic Poem

Far spreads a mind-world full of gleam and pomp,
Fictitious parities, fair-seeming shows
And shallow music, on a thousand themes
Discoursing lightly to external sense,
But, void of vital meaning, leaving souls
Untouch'd and unawaken'd. Beauty here
Is specious only; to the heart it brings
No message which can penetrate or bind:
Here lights false fantasy, a moon full-orb'd.
Akin to this, there spreads a wider world
Of sensible impressions and of joys
Bereft of depth or height: what restless crowd
Is surging there! As earth of mother earth,
For inspiration pure, for genius true,
Hold thou these worlds with all their paths and ways!
All ye who would be saved, come out from them,
And in the heaven of everlasting mind
Surely the Word Divine shall welcome you!
No password there he needs who keeps within
One sacred truth, that man is compass'd now
By many sacraments and parables,
By speaking likenesses and shows which shew
Rich depths for inquisition. Close about
They press, they minister and dimly limn
The infinite behind them. By a quest
Which does not take too far or ask too much
We can achieve their meanings, know the grace
Which lies within, their living language learn,
And this shall take us past all outward pomps
Far into vision, far through mystery.
In splendid pageantries of holy sea,
As in the mellow hush of moonless nights,
And in the grandeur of that starry vault,
Dare to confess the ministries of deep
And many-sided emblems which unfold
To man alone, developing for him
Resources in the measure of his need,
His insight, inquest and experiment.
All speculation's penetrant research;
Toil-conquer'd tracts of knowledge and the vast
Beyond—ungain'd; the solemn sense of things
Immeasurable; glimpses scarcely caught
Of new worlds glimmering on an utmost verge
And precipice of being; these are fonts
Of true suggestion; these awake, uplift
Supreme imagination, and therein
Find proper end and first reality.
Thus, by the glass of the astronomer,
Man searches deeper in his nature's depths,
And by the flights of theosophic thought
He gauges further and surveys himself;
While in proportion with the mind's advance
Great Nature widens, for the silver links—
Which form the mystic chain of hidden things—
Are multiplied by counting; the divine
And visionary universe expands
At every bolder plunge of mind therein.

The goal is still within ourselves alone,
The dream is also there, its meaning there—
All in a sense within. The outer world
Marks but one era of the human soul's
Advance, developing her infinite.
O blessed promise of the time to come!
At each succeeding stage more lofty types—
A wider world—significance more deep—
Till, in the full possession of itself,
Each soul attains, from every type set free,
The supra-conscious life of pure repose
And unveil'd vision into God, the All.