A Hidden Life and Other Poems

A PRAYER FOR THE PAST

  All sights and sounds of every year,All groups and forms, each leaf and gem,Are thine, O God, nor need I fearTo speak to Thee of them.  Too great thy heart is to despise;Thy day girds centuries about;From things which we count small, thine eyesSee great things looking out.  Therefore this prayerful song I singMay come to Thee in ordered words;Therefore its sweet sounds need not clingIn terror to their chords.* * * * *  I know that nothing made is lost;That not a moon hath ever shone,That not a cloud my eyes hath crost,But to my soul hath gone.  That all the dead years garnered lieIn this gem-casket, my dim soul;And that thy hand may, once, applyThe key that opes the whole.  But what lies dead in me, yet livesIn Thee, whose Parable is—Time,And Worlds, and Forms, and Sound that givesWords and the music-chime.  And after my next coming birth,The new child's prayer will rise to Thee:To hear again the sounds of Earth,Its sights again to see.  With child's glad eyes to see once moreThe visioned glories of the gloom,With climbing suns, and starry store,Ceiling my little room.  O call again the moons that glideBehind old vapours sailing slow;Lost sights of solemn skies that slideO'er eyelids sunken low.  Show me the tides of dawning swell,And lift the world's dim eastern eye,And the dark tears that all night fellWith radiance glorify.  First I would see, oh, sore bereft!My father's house, my childhood's home;Where the wild snow-storms raved, and leftWhite mounds of frozen foam.  Till, going out one dewy morn,A man was turning up the mould;And in our hearts the spring was born,Crept hither through the cold.  And with the glad year I would go,The troops of daisies round my feet;Flying the kite, or, in the glowOf arching summer heat,  Outstretched in fear upon the bank,Lest gazing up on awful space,I should fall down into the blankFrom off the round world's face.  And let my brothers be with meTo play our old games yet again;And all should go as lovinglyAs now that we are men.  If over Earth the shade of DeathPassed like a cloud's wide noiseless wing,We'd tell a secret, in low breath:"Mind, 'tis a dream of Spring.  "And in this dream, our brother's goneUpstairs; he heard our father call;For one by one we go alone,Till he has gathered all."  Father, in joy our knees we bow;This earth is not a place of tombs:We are but in the nursery now;They in the upper rooms.  For are we not at home in Thee,And all this world a visioned show;That, knowing what Abroad is, weWhat Home is, too, may know?  And at thy feet I sit, O Lord,As years ago, in moonlight pale,I sat and heard my father's wordReading a lofty tale.  So in this vision I would goStill onward through the gliding years,Reaping great Noontide's joyous glow,Still Eve's refreshing tears.  One afternoon sit ponderingIn that old chair, in that old room,Where passing pigeon's sudden wingFlashed lightning through the gloom.  There, try once more with effort vain,To mould in one perplexed things;And find the solace yet againFaith in the Father brings.  Or on my horse go wandering round,Mid desert moors and mountains high;While storm-clouds, darkly brooding, foundIn me another sky.  For so thy Visible grew mine,Though half its power I could not know;And in me wrought a work divine,Which Thou hadst ordered so;  Filling my brain with form and wordFrom thy full utterance unto men;Shapes that might ancient Truth afford,And find it words again.  Till Spring, in after years of youth,Wove its dear form with every form;Now a glad bursting into Truth,Now a low sighing storm.  But in this vision of the Past,Spring-world to summer leading in,Whose joys but not whose sorrows last,I have left out the sin.  I picture but development,Green leaves unfolding to their fruits,Expanding flowers, aspiring scent,But not the writhing roots.  Then follow English sunsets, o'erA warm rich land outspread below;A green sea from a level shore,Bright boats that come and go.  And one beside me in whose eyesOld Nature found a welcome home,A treasury of changeful skiesBeneath a changeless dome.  But will it still be thus, O God?And shall I always wish to seeAnd trace again the hilly roadBy which I went to Thee?  We bend above a joy new given,That gives new feelings gladsome birth;A living gift from one in heavenTo two upon the earth.  Are no days creeping softly onWhich I should tremble to renew?I thank thee, Lord, for what is gone—Thine is the future too.  And are we not at home in Thee,And all this world a visioned show;That knowing what Abroad is, weWhat Home is, too, may know?

FAR AND NEAR

[The fact to which the following verses refer, is related by Dr. Edward Clarke in his Travels.]

Blue sunny skies above; below,  A blue and sunny sea;A world of blue, wherein did blow  One soft wind steadily.In great and solemn heaves, the mass  Of pulsing ocean beat,Unwrinkled as the sea of glass  Beneath the holy feet.With forward leaning of desire,  The ship sped calmly on,A pilgrim strong that would not tire,  Nor hasten to be gone.The mouth of the mysterious Nile,  Full thirty leagues away,Breathed in his ear old tales to wile  Old Ocean as he lay.Low on the surface of the sea  Faint sounds like whispers glideOf lovers talking tremulously,  Close by the vessel's side.Or as within a sleeping wood  A windy sigh awoke,And fluttering all the leafy brood,  The summer-silence broke.A wayward phantasy might say  That little ocean-maidsWere clapping little hands of play,  Deep down in ocean-glades.The traveller by land and flood,  The man of ready mind,Much questioning the reason, stood—  No answer could he find.That day, on Egypt's distant land,  And far from off the shore,Two nations fought with armed hand,  With bellowing cannon's roar.That fluttering whisper, low and near,  Was the far battle-blare;An airy rippling motion here,  The blasting thunder there.And so this aching in my breast,  Dim, faint, and undefined,May be the sound of far unrest,  Borne on the spirit's wind;The uproar of the battle fought Betwixt the bond and free;The thundering roll in whispers brought  From Heaven's artillery.

MY ROOM

To G.E.M.

'Tis a little room, my friend;A baby-walk from end to end;All the things look sadly real,This hot noontide's Unideal.Seek not refuge at the casement,There's no pasture for amazementBut a house most dim and rusty,And a street most dry and dusty;Seldom here more happy visionThan water-cart's blest apparition,We'll shut out the staring space,Draw the curtains in its face.Close the eyelids of the room,Fill it with a scarlet gloom:Lo! the walls on every sideAre transformed and glorified;Ceiled as with a rosy cloudFurthest eastward of the crowd,Blushing faintly at the blissOf the Titan's good-night kiss,Which her westward sisters share,—Crimson they from breast to hair.'Tis the faintest lends its dyeTo my room—ah, not the sky!Worthy though to be a roomUnderneath the wonder-dome:Look around on either hand,Are we not in fairy-land?In the ruddy atmosphereAll familiar things appearGlowing with a mysteryIn the red light shadowy;Lasting bliss to you and me,Colour only though it be.Now on the couch, inwrapt in mistOf vapourized amethyst,Lie, as in a rose's heart;Secret things I will impart;Any time you would receive them;Easier though you will believe themIn dissolving dreamy red,Self-same radiance that is shedFrom the summer-heart of Poet,Flushing those that never know it.Tell me not the light thou viewestIs a false one; 'tis the truest;'Tis the light revealing wonder,Filling all above and under;If in light you make a schism,'Tis the deepest in the prism.The room looks common; but the fact is'Tis a cell of magic practice,So disguised by common daylight,By its disenchanting grey light,Only spirit-eyes, mesmeric,See its glories esoteric.There, that case against the wall,Glowingly purpureal!A piano to the prosy—Not to us in twilight rosy:'Tis a cave where Nereids lie.Naiads, Dryads, Oreads sigh,Dreaming of the time when theyDanced in forest and in bay.In that chest before your eyes,Nature's self enchanted lies;Awful hills and midnight woods;Sunny rains in solitudes;Deserts of unbounded longing;Blessed visions, gladness thronging;All this globe of life unfoldethIn phantom forms that coffer holdeth.True, unseen; for 'tis enchanted—What is that but kept till wanted?Do you hear that voice of singing?'Tis the enchantress that is flingingSpells around her baby's riot,Music's oil the waves to quiet:She at once can disenchant them,To a lover's wish to grant them;She can make the treasure casketYield its riches, as that basketYielded up the gathered flowers;Yet its mines, and fields, and bowers,Full remain, as mother EarthNever tired of giving birth.Do you doubt me? Wait till nightBrings black hours and white delight;Then, as now, your limbs outstretching,Yield yourself to her bewitching.She will bring a book of spellsWrit like crabbed oracles;Wherewith necromantic fingersRaise the ghosts of parted singers:Straight your senses will be boundIn a net of torrent sound.For it is a silent fountain,Fed by springs from unseen mountain.Till with gestures cabalistic,Crossing, lining figures mystic,(Diagram most mathematic,Simple to these signs erratic,)O'er the seals her quick hands goingLoose the rills and set them flowing:Pent up music rushing outBathes thy spirit all about;Spell-bound nature, freed again,Joyous revels in thy brain.On a mountain-top you stand,Looking o'er a sunny land;Giant forces marching slow,Rank on rank, the great hills go,On and on without a stay,Melting in the blue away.Wondrous light, more wondrous shading;High relief in faintness fading;Branching streams, like silver veins,Meet and part in dells and plains.There a woody hollow lies,Dumb with love, and bright with eyes;Moorland tracks of broken groundRising o'er, it all around:Traveller climbing from the groveNeeds the tender heavens above."Ah, my pictured life," you cry,"Fading into sea and sky!"Lost in thought that gently grieves you,All the fairy landscape leaves you;Sinks the sadness into rest,Ripple-like on water's breast;Mother's bosom rests the daughter,—Grief the ripple, Love the water.All the past is strangely blendedIn a mist of colours splendid,But chaotic as to form,An unfeatured beauty-storm.Wakes within, the ancient mindFor a gloriousness defined:As she sought and knew your pleasure,—Wiling with a dancing measure,Underneath your closed eyesShe calls the shapes of clouded skies;White forms flushing hyacinthineTwine in curvings labyrinthine;Seem with godlike graceful feet,For such mazy motion meet,To press from air each lambent note,On whose throbbing fire they float;With an airy wishful gaitOn each others' motion wait;Naked arms and vesture freeFill up the dance of harmony.Gone the measure polyhedral!Springs aloft a high cathedral;Every arch, like praying armsUpward flung in love's alarms,Knit by clasped hands o'erhead,Heaves to heaven the weight of dread.Underneath thee, like a cloud,Gathers music, dim not loud,Swells thy bosom with devotion,Floats thee like a wave of ocean;Vanishes the pile away,—In heaven thou kneelest down to pray.Let the sounds but reach thy heart,Straight thyself magician art;Walkest open-eyed through earth;Seest wonders in their birth,Whence they come and whither go;Thou thyself exalted so,Nature's consciousness, wherebyOn herself she turns her eye.Only heed thou worship God;Else thou stalkest on thy sod,Puppet-god of picture-world,For thy foolish gaze unfurled;Mirror-thing of things below thee.Thy own self can never know thee;Not a high and holy actor;A reflector, and refractor;Helpless in thy gift of light,Self-consuming into night.Lasting yet the roseate glory!I must hasten with my storyOf the little room's true features,Seldom seen by mortal creatures;Lest my prophet-vision fadingLeave me in the darkness wading.What are those upon the wall,Ranged in rows symmetrical?They are books, an owl would say;But the owl's night is the day:Of these too, if you have patience,I can give you revelations:Through the walls of Time and Sight,Doors they are to the Infinite;Through the limits that embrace us,Openings to the eternal spaces,Round us all the noisy day,Full of silences alway;Round us all the darksome night,Ever full of awful light:And, though closed, may still remind usThere is mystery behind us.That, my friend? Now, it is curious,You should hit upon the spurious!'Tis a blind, a painted door:Knock at it for evermore,Never vision it affordsBut its panelled gilded boards;Behind it lieth nought at all,But the limy, webby wall.Oh no, not a painted block—Not the less a printed mock;A book, 'tis true; no whit the moreA revealing out-going door.There are two or three such booksFor a while in others' nooks;Where they should no longer be,But for reasons known to me.Do not open that one though.It is real; but if you goCareless to it, as to dance,You'll see nothing for your glance;Blankness, deafness, blindness, dumbness,Soon will stare you to a numbness.No, my friend; it is not wiseTo open doors into the skies,As into a little study,Where a feeble brain grows muddy.Wait till night, and you shall beLeft alone with mystery;Light this lamp's white softened ray,(Another wonder by the way,)Then with humble faith and prayer,Ope the door with patient care:Yours be calmness then, and strengthFor the sight you see at length.Sometimes, after trying vainly,With much effort, forced, ungainly,To entice the rugged doorTo yield up its wondrous lore,With a sudden burst of thunderAll its frame is dashed asunder;The gulfy silence, lightning-fleet,Shooteth hellward at thy feet.Take thou heed lest evil terrorSnare thee in a downward error,Drag thee through the narrow gate,Give thee up to windy fate,To be blown for evermoreUp and down without a shore;For to shun the good as illMakes the evil bolder still.But oftener far the portal opesWith the sound of coming hopes;On the joy-astonished eyesAwful heights of glory rise;Mountains, stars, and dreadful space,The Eternal's azure face.In storms of silence self is drowned,Leaves the soul a gulf profound,Where new heavens and earth arise,Rolling seas and arching skies.Gathers slow a vapour o'er theeFrom the ocean-depths before thee:Lo! the vision all hath vanished,Thou art left alone and banished;Shut the door, thou findest, groping,Without chance of further oping.Thou must wait until thy soulRises nearer to its goal;Till more childhood strength has given—Then approach this gate of Heaven:It will open as before,Yielding wonders, yet in storeFor thee, if thou wilt turn to goodThings already understood.Why I let such useless lumberUseful bookshelves so encumber?I will tell thee; for thy questionOf wonders brings me to the best one.There's a future wonder, may be—Sure a present magic baby;(Patience, friend, I know your looks—What has that to do with books?)With her sounds of molten speechQuick a parent's heart to reach,Though uncoined to words sedate,Or even to sounds articulate;Yet sweeter than the music's flowing,Which doth set her music going.Now our highest wonder-dutyIs with this same wonder-beauty;How, with culture high and steady,To unfold a magic-lady;How to keep her full of wonderAt all things above and under;Her from childhood never part,Change the brain, but keep the heart.She is God's child all the time;On all the hours the child must climb,As on steps of shining stairsLeading up the path of prayers.So one lesson from our looks,Must be this: to honour books,As a strange and mystic bandWhich she cannot understand;Scarce to touch them without fear,Never, but when I am near,As a priest, to temple-riteLeading in the acolyte.But when she has older grown,And can see a difference shown,She must learn, 'tis not appearingMakes a book fit for revering;To distinguish and divide'Twixt the form and soul inside;That a book is more than boards,Leaves and words in gathered hordes,Which no greater good can do manThan the goblin hollow woman,Or a pump without a well,Or priest without an oracle.Form is worthless, save it beType of an infinity;Sign of something present, true,Though unopened to the view,Heady in its bosom holdingWhat it will be aye unfolding,Never uttering but in part,From an unexhausted heart.Sight convincing to her mind,I will separate kind from kind,Take those books, though honoured by herLay them on the study fire,For their form's sake somewhat tender,Yet consume them to a cinder;Years of reverence shall not save themFrom the greedy flames that crave them.You shall see this slight Immortal,Half-way yet within life's portal;Gathering gladness, she looks back,Streams it forward on her track;Wanders ever in the danceOf her own sweet radiance.Though the glory cease to burn,Inward only it will turn;Make her hidden being bright,Make herself a lamp of light;And a second gate of birthWill take her to another earth.But, my friend, I've rattled plentyTo suffice for mornings twenty;And I must not toss you longerOn this torrent waxing stronger.Other things, past contradiction,Here would prove I spoke no fiction,Did I lead them up, choragic,To reveal their nature magic.There is that machine, glass-masked,With continual questions tasked,Ticking with untiring rock:It is called an eight-day clock.But to me the thing appearsMade for winding up the years,Drawing on, fast as it can,The day when comes the Son of Man.On the sea the sunshine broods,And the shining tops of woods;We will leave these oracles,Finding others 'mid the hills.

SYMPATHY

Grief held me silent in my seat,  I neither moved nor smiled:Joy held her silent at my feet,  My little lily-child.She raised her face; she seemed to feel  That she was left outside;She said one word with childish zeal  That would not be denied.Twice more my name, with infant grace;  Sole word her lips could mould!Her face was pulling at my face—  She was but ten months old.I know not what were my replies—  I thought: dost Thou, O God,Need ever thy poor children's eyes,  To ease thee of thy load?They find not Thee in evil case,  But, raised in sorrow wild,Bring down from visiting thy face  The calmness of a child.Thou art the depth of Heaven above—  The springing well in her;Not Father only in thy love,  But daily minister.And this is how the comfort slid  From her to me the while,—It was thy present face that did  Smile on me from her smile.

LITTLE ELFIE

I have an elfish maiden child;  She is not two years old;Through windy locks her eyes gleam wild,  With glances shy and bold.Like little imps, her tiny hands  Dart out and push and take;Chide her—a trembling thing she stands,  And like two leaves they shake.But to her mind a minute gone  Is like a year ago;So when you lift your eyes anon,  They're at it, to and fro.Sometimes, though not oppressed with thought,  She has her sleepless fits;Then to my room in blanket brought,  In round-backed chair she sits;Where, if by chance in graver mood,  A hermit she appears,Seated in cave of ancient wood,  Grown very still with years.Then suddenly the pope she is,  A playful one, I know;For up and down, now that, now this,  Her feet like plash-mill go.Why like the pope? She's at it yet,  Her knee-joints flail-like go:Unthinking man! it is to let  Her mother kiss each toe.But if I turn away and write,  Then sudden look around,I almost tremble; tall and white  She stands upon the ground.In long night-gown, a tiny ghost,  She stands unmoving there;Or if she moves, my wits were lost  To meet her on the stair!O Elfie, make no haste to lose  Thy lack of conscious sense;Thou hast the best gift I could choose,  A God-like confidence.

THE THANK OFFERING

My little child receives my gift,  A simple piece of bread;But to her mouth she doth not lift  The love in bread conveyed,Till on my lips, unerring, swift,  The morsel first is laid.This is her grace before her food,  This her libation poured;Uplift, like offering Aaron good  Heaved up unto the Lord;More riches in the thanks than could  A thousand gifts afford!My Father, every gift of thine,  Teach me to lift to Thee;Not else know I the love divine,  With which it comes to me;Not else the tenfold gift is mine  Of taking thankfully.Yea, all my being I would lift,  An offering of me;Then only truly mine the gift,  When so received by Thee;Then shall I go, rejoicing, swift,  Through thine Eternity.

THE BURNT OFFERING

Is there a man on earth, who, every night,When the day hath exhausted each strong limb,Lays him upon his bed in chamber dim,And his heart straightway trembling with delight,Begins to burn up towards the vaulted heightOf the great peace that overshadows him?Like flakes of fire his thoughts within him swim,Till all his soul is radiant, blazing bright.The great earth under him an altar is,Upon whose top a sacrifice he lies,Burning to God up through the nightly skies,Whose love, warm-brooding o'er him, kindled his;Until his flaming thoughts, consumed, expire,Sleep's ashes covering the yet glowing fire.

FOUR SONNETS

Inscribed to S.F.S., because the second is about her father.

I

They say that lonely sorrows do not chance.I think it true, and that the cause I know:A sorrow glideth in a funeral showEasier than if it broke into a dance.But I think too, that joy doth joy enhanceAs often as an added grief brings low;And if keen-eyed to see the flowers that grow,As keen of nerve to feel the thorns that lanceThe foot that must walk naked in one way—Blest by the lily, white from toils and fears,Oftener than wounded by the thistle-spears,We should walk upright, bold, and earnest-gay.I'll tell you how it fared with me one dayAfter noon in a world, so-called, of tears.

II

I went to listen to my teacher friend.O Friend above, thanks for the friend below!Who having been made wise, deep things to know,With brooding spirit over them doth bend,Until they waken words, as wings, to sendTheir seeds far forth, seeking a place to grow.The lesson past, with quiet foot I go,And towards his silent room, expectant wend,Seeking a blessing, even leave to dwellFor some eternal minutes in his eyes.And he smiled on me in his loving wise;His hand spoke friendship, satisfied me well;My presence was some pleasure, I could tell.Then forth we went beneath the smoky skies.

III

I, strengthened, left him. Next in a close place,Mid houses crowded, dingy, barred, and high,Where men live not except to sell and buy,To me, leaving a doorway, came a grace.(Surely from heaven she came, though all that raceWalketh on human feet beneath the sky.)I, going on, beheld not who was nigh,When a sweet girl looked up into my faceWith earnest eyes, most maidenly sedate—Looked up to me, as I to him did look:'Twas much to me whom sometimes men mistook.She asked me where we dwelt, that she might waitUpon us there. I told her, and elate,Went on my way to seek another nook.

IV

And there I found him whom I went to find,A man of noble make and head uplift,Of equal carriage, Nature's bounteous gift;For in no shelter had his generous mindGrown flowers that need the winds, rough not unkind.The joiner's bench taught him, with judgment swift,Seen things to fashion, unseen things to sift;From all his face a living soul outshined,Telling of strength and inward quietude;His great hand shook mine greatly, and his eyesLooked straight in mine with spiritual replies:I left him, rich with overflowing good.Such joys within two hours of happy mood,Met me beneath the everlasting skies.

SONNET

(Exodus xxxiii. 18-23.)

"I do beseech Thee, God, show me thy face.""Come up to me in Sinai on the morn:Thou shalt behold as much as may be borne."And Moses on a rock stood lone in space.From Sinai's top, the vaporous, thunderous place,God passed in clouds, an earthly garment wornTo hide, and thus reveal. In love, not scorn,He put him in a cleft in the rock's base,Covered him with his hand, his eyes to screen,Then passed, and showed his back through mists of years.Ah, Moses! had He turned, and hadst thou seenThe pale face crowned with thorns, baptized with tears,The eyes of the true man, by men belied,Thou hadst beheld God's face, and straightway died.

EIGHTEEN SONNETS,

About Jesus.

I

If Thou hadst been a sculptor, what a raceOf forms divine had ever preached to men!Lo, I behold thy brow, all glorious then,(Its reflex dawning on the statue's face)Bringing its Thought to birth in human grace,The soul of the grand form, upstarting, whenThou openest thus thy mysteries to our ken,Striking a marble window through blind space.But God, who mouldeth in life-plastic clay,Flashing his thoughts from men with living eyes,Not from still marble forms, changeless alway,Breathed forth his human self in human guise:Thou didst appear, walking unknown abroad,The son of man, the human, subject God.