Classic Poem

The Inner Light

Lo , if some pen should write upon your rafter
— Mene and Mene in the folds of flame,
Think you could any memories thereafter
— Wholly retrace the couplet as it came?

Lo, if some strange, intelligible thunder
— Sang to the earth the secret of a star,
Scarce could ye catch, for terror and for wonder,
— Shreds of the story that was pealed so far.

Scarcely I catch the words of His revealing,
— Hardly I hear Him, dimly understand,
Only the Power that is within me pealing
— Lives on my lips and beckons to my hand.

Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest
— Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny:
Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest,
— Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.

Rather the earth shall doubt when her retrieving
— Pours in the rain and rushes from the sod,
Rather than he for whom the great conceiving
— Stirs in his soul to quicken into God.

Ay, though thou then shouldst strike from him his glory,
— Blind and tormented, maddened and alone,
Even on the cross would he maintain his story,
— Yes, and in hell would whisper, I have known.English