Classic Poem

Earth , whatso gradual changes mould her sons,
Hath yet her holy Motherhood; her no
Invading years, whose march eternal is,
Despoil, when all else yield dear spoils to time,
But from the first-beginnings of the world,
Summer and winter, spring, and the fair fall
Witness her mighty ever and unworn.
Seats hath she manifold and proper rites,
Nor least solemn Eleusis honoureth her,
Whereof man may not lightly speak: howbeit
I wrong not her, striving life-worn and bent
To tell aright Julian into those high
Mysteries once initiate: for I write
Crept close within death's shadow, and the soul
That was Libanius must be gathered home
Soon, to some kindred air.
O reverend haunt,
Eleusis, highly favoured! whom the seas
Crown, that have rung with Salaminian shouts,
And from the world's true centre separate
By that sweet mystic road rose-flushed, and lit
With torches tossing in the maenad chase
Through odorous incense-clouds! Queen of the world,
In splendour and in passion and in flame
Greater than Delphic or than Delian fanes,
Fallen Solyma, or Rome before false Gods
Fallen from that high state she had: but thou
Livest, nor ever more shall graybeards say,
Lo! this was that Eleusis; here men heard
God speaking as a friend speaks . For so held
Prophets and hierophants of the Most High,
Whom soaring Plato in the west presents,
Profound Pythagoras, and of later day,
Most like to gods, Iamblichus, and those
Dissenters, whom to admire I count no shame —
Howbeit they saw but blindly, lost in light —
Porphyrius, Plotinus; thinking scorn prostrate
To adore through mysteries the central light,
Light of light, soul of the primordial worlds,
Whom through the flame-cloven gloom pure souls attain
With worship venerable, and speechless zeal —
Presumptuous, whom that old Titanic war
Foreshadowed of the Giants and the Gods —
Not so through violence and extreme conflict
Is truth taken by storm: rather from such
Heaven hides the heritage that maketh wise.
The vast Ephesian antres heavy-hung
With drowsying fragrance of frankincense, pierced
Nowise by any common light, but swathed
Densely in vapours of voluminous gloom, —
Thrice-blessed they that unto very God
Conducted first the fair flower of his youth,
Voiceful, fulfilled of beatific sound
Deep-thrilling from the Godhead; and from these
Most ancient of all shrines, Athens received
Julian, from bonds of Nicodeme set free,
Emancipate from Christ. See now what force
Abides in boastful time, when love can cleanse
Fast-closing eyes from his obscuring clouds
And lighten them with clear remembrances?
Dreaming alone and melancholy here
In Antioch, by these Galilean slaves
Made desolate with warring words, and acts
That but confound their doctrine, now meseems
Hymettus' roseal lights purple the air,
And there once more that old Socratic way
Of sage converse and upright thoughts I walk,
Not solitary, but enriched with friends,
Who keep not now so close companionship,
Basil and Gregory and Theodore,
Proving the golden laws of Wisdom. Soon —
For constantly the wretched of the world
Vext in the great troubling of bitter seas
Hail them some single star, albeit it shake
No constant polar light — there joined himself
An austere youth unto our company,
Whose grave aspect was as of one who cared
Lightly for loud clamours and voices; one
That voice whereto he hearkened, as it spake
Through loyal discipline of stars and suns
Unalterably steadfast, and in sounds
Full of calm beauty or sonorous chords
Struck down the deeps of nature. But not now
Can I recapture his fair influence
To charm me as it wont, though once to mark
The reverence uprisen on his face
Before some flagrant majesty of light
Proclaiming God upon the world, inspired
Peace to the insurgent mind, as though indeed
His flaming angels intercepted him
From taint or touch of lewdness. Lady of light,
Truth, who dost lead thy vassals evermore
Vehemently serving thee, thou knowest best
How whole the adoration wherewithal
He knelt but unto thee, utterly thine!
Light marvel that he agonised for thee,
That, master of thy mysteries, no fear
Might fold its horrent wings about his soul
Blinding the light whereby he lived. Sublime
They stand crowned on the heights, observing thence
This weary world of workers, who have known,
Handled, seen, felt the uttermost of thee —
Made kin to stars and eagles. Faith inflamed
This Julian, even as faith against the Mede
Upheld the sleepers in the Fennel Fields —
Faith living, violent, venerable; the air
Hellenic breathes faith in those ancient Gods,
Refulgent facets of crystalline truth,
Virtues and stately Laws: in such high wise
Deem that Gods dwelt with men indeed: for one
Power sways the tidal years and elements,
One Power the thoughts of man, one Power the winds(,)
Waters, and fair-flowered lands; we worship not,
Yea, vowed to many Gods, we worship not
Save but one dread divinity whose light
Lightens the general world. Yet were that pang
Of gazing on the deadly splendour's face[,]
Face to face, dying man with deathless God,
Shame, and no added glory; but the Power,
Being every way extreme, compassionates
Even as It slays. Wherefore of every Truth
Created, as in Truth's own image, Gods
Sprang, visible to adoring eyes that shone
Merely through joy of so great grace: men's hearts
Leaped, and with music caught down from the sun
Their lyres rang out, and with tumultuous cry
Thundered their passions constant to the tone
Of heavenly harmonies. Men lived so once,
God-like, passionate, loving equal laws.

Chance and change, chance and change! strange chance, hard change —
These fashion what we know, and grieve to know,
But Julian faithful to the larger faith
Rejoiced as one whose laughter cleaves a storm,
Ringing all passionate gladness; undismayed,
Standing upright above a world prostrate
He dared the steeps of difficult truth. Ah! heart
Full-pulsed with love and loyalty! But now
Dust are thy passions, and thy soul is light
In suns that rise and set. Nay, but he saw
Eleusis, and is dead: I too have seen,
And therefore hold my peace. Borne on with wings
Flaming and urgent to the upward flight,
The mystery of ancient mysteries
Dawned on him battling to the height. Corn fields
Under the sapphirine air burned; the world glowed
Quickened to bring forth life into the world:
And through the cloudless places of his soul
Stirred the strong zeal that bade him cast his life
Wholly within the perfected domain,
Whereto mount sages the mysterious way.

And still his lips murmured Eleusis, torn
With passion of no thyrsus-waving troop
That cry from loosened lips on Dionysus,
Pouring a world of worship down: still one
Masterful longing for the extreme of light,
The sun uncenturied of knowledge, burned
Within the far dream of his onward eyes.
Eleusis! for the pulses of his thought
Beat thither as a lover's. But our road
Was lonelier than the ancient days beheld
That Eleusinian way-faring; long since
Upon the first morn of the nine day's feast
In Boidromion beautiful with sheaves,
To Athens flocked the mystics; thence the cry
Seaward, seaward, ye mystics! bade them wash
From soil and stain in the clear waters; next,
Together having shared sweet honey-cakes,
Wended the first procession round the car
That bore the basket of symbolic fruits,
Poppy-seed with pomegranate; in chaste hands
Followed the sacred arks. But at night-fall
With faces flashing beneath flames of pine
They sought Persephone along the shores,
Mid murmurs from the deep. Then, chiefest rite,
Iacchos myrtle-coronalled came forth
From Ceramicus, westward charioted
By thunders of a marching multitude
Unto Demeter's temple. At midnight,
Through lustral waters purified, they passed
Within the veil, led by the hierophant.
Without, the hosts of heaven were splendid: these
The dark that once brooded upon the deep,
Ere any light was, clothed upon with awe;
Death in life reigned over the vasty air,
And in the dark was silence; save each heart
Trembled in thunder to each fearful soul.
But from the far world-ends, sweeping the seas,
Fields, footless mountain tops, and lonely moors,
Wave upon wave of sound gathered — a moan
Dreary as the thin voice of a forlorn wind
Through Daphne drifting down, fitful and slow;
Soon swelling to the full voice of a sea
Long maddened with fierce blasts; and on their fear
Smote the full storm of sound from floor to vault,
Smote, and back yielded into silent gloom
The air full charged with adoration; deep
Shuddered to deep of darkness. Kneeling so,
Their eyes sealed fast to visions, on them broke
Thunder with flame; fires from the founts of fire
Ruined and fluctuated, falling upon
The impassioned face of the rapt hierophant
Upturned beside the altar; the high vaults
Shook, and the walls quaked; formless voices filled
The hollow night with music and the noise
Of many waters. Thus-wise heralded,
Stooped Truth to tabernacle in the souls
Of just men perfected, from her high seat
Within the hearts prepared to throne her well,
Folding all mystery; henceforth to reign
Strong in the stern majesty of pure men.
Ah! days vanished and fled! not so we found
That treasure of the worlds; well-nigh alone
Kept we true festival, and homeward went
Lords of the laws that bind the Pleiad lights
And order the outgoings of the morn.
Then Julian broke long silence: love and strength
And adoration's urgent utterance: —
" Truth incommunicable, pure Power of one
God! whom men show blindly, nor care to prove
With awed submission to the holy strengths
Of thunders and of lightnings, nor in souls
Attempered to the fiery elements
Flowing and flowing as the one Will works —
Truth absolute, thou wouldest not that souls
Should climb through anguish and the wearier way
Thee-ward, nor leave the music of the worlds
Concordant in the winds, the waves, one voice
Diversely glorious down the natural air,
To cast about thy feet bloodless and clean
The burden of unmeasured sorrows: thou
Throned, crowned, whose eyes kindle our night like stars,
Whose feet stand fast for ever, thou alone
Since the worlds were, triumphest; thee not hands
Outspread will clasp nor earthward pluck down thee
That art no spirit of sorrows among men,
But always thou inhabitest the high
Calms and serenities of nature; thee
Beauty encircles, free and unashamed,
Justice acclaims thee, and a morning calm
Hallows; the eagle's flight fails ere he reach
The immediate marvel of thy majesty.
Now therefore I am thine, as are all things
Thine; make thou me so thoroughly thrall of thine,
Living, that after years of service done,
Dissolved within thy catholic embrace,
Satiate with thee and full-filled, I may pass
Beyond that great bourne whither ache mine eyes,
Late-kindled at the high-revealing act
Wherein some portion of thy secret thou
Disdainest not to men; so that they walk
Thenceforward nobly the wide world as kings,
For whom the monarchies of all the earth
Fall, dust and ashes; but these holding fast
An inward strength divine, mingle with men
As moveless lights, whom not the shaken cloud
Will drive down night, but still their supreme seats
Are for fixed signs of heaven. In such severe
Companies of thy saints set me who seek
Thee only, thee always, thee, Power of God,
Maker of life, lord over death, which are
Thy creatures ministrant. Wherefore no dread
Toucheth us when each breath wrestles its way
Up to the golden air in difficult death;
Ourselves to take no lesser lot, outcast
With disencumbrance of mortality
Upon the wastes of nature, and one hope
Immeasurably beating for the proof
Of that fair guess locked fast within men's hearts
For certain, or when longed-for faces fade
Out of our seeing, or when stedfast minds
Claim no extinction for their wage. Howbeit,
Darkness is none to me, whose eyes have seen
Salvation through the terrible midnight
Lightening; and I above men's phrenzied cries
And clangour of intolerable God
Have heard salvation as a whispered word
Down-winging from the Most High: so one shaft
Enroses earth, while the gray storm-clouds drive.

" I would that hence never my feet might stray,
Where rest abides and war comes not: these things
Yet rule thou as thou wilt; arbitrement
Is all, and is of thee: whether the Fates
Impose on me the princedom of this world
Whereon attend ordinances and wants
Of many peoples, and thwart chance of war:
Or suffer me from old Lucretius' height
Contemplate the laborious march of men
Mid morning airs, and infinite delight
Of ancient music such as none make now.
Thou leddest me from sudden death, thy light
Piloted me safe through those Christian men,
Traffickers in their God's divinity,
Yea, shepherds feeding not the flock, but bent
Wholly on questionings of who their Lord,
And what the measure of his Lordship; fools
Dishonourable in their trust. But thee
What heart may doubt, and cavil at thy reign,
Sweet star of purity! "
With that his voice
Broke, and his thought passed into secret calm,
Its wonted way: and on his face there shone
Light from his viewless hosts of ministrant
Angels of sun and stars. But lo, the sun
Sprang forth across Acropolis, and fired
August Athena's gaze, stricken with dawn.