'Twas the height of the world's night, there was neither warmth nor light,
And the heart of Earth was heavy as a stone;
Yet the nations sick with loss saw the surge of heaven toss
Round the meteor of the Cross; and with a moan
All the people desolate gazed thereon and question'd fate,
And the wind went by and bit them to the bone.

Hope was fled and Faith was dead, and the black pell overhead
Hung like Death's, for doom was heavy everywhere, —
When there rose a sudden gleam, then a thunder, then a scream,
Then a lightning, stream on stream aslant the air!

How in the end the Judgment dread
Shall by the Lord thy God be said, —
While brightly in a City of Rest
Shall flash the fountains of the Blest,
And gladdening around the Throne
All mortal men shall smile, — save one. ...
Children of Earth, hear, last and first,
The Vision of the Man Accurst.

Judgment was over; all the world redeem'd
Save one Man, — who had sinned all sins, whose soul
Was blackness and foul odour. Last of all,
When all was lamb-white, through the summer Sea
Of ministering Spirits he was drifted

A scroll antique, with weeds behung,
Writ in a mystic pagan tongue,
Wash'd to Orm's feet by the wan Main
After long nights of wind and rain:
Translating this at dead of night,
The Celt beholds with dazzled sight
Strange gods stalk past, and in their train,
Supreme, the King of Sin and Pain.

I.

The I NSCRIPTION W ITHOUT .

The Moral Law: all Evil is Defect;
The limb deform'd for common use of life
Defect, — but haply in the line of growth.

Thou who the Face Divine wouldst see,
Think, — couldst thou bear the sight, and be?
O waves of life and thought and dream,
Darkening in one mysterious Stream,
Flow on, flow loudly; nor become
A glassy Mirror sad and dumb,
Whereon for evermore might shine
The dread peace of the Face Divine! —
Children of earth whose spirits fail,
Beware the Lifting of the Veil!

I.

O RM'S Vision .

M Y Soul had a vision,
And in my Soul's vision
The Veil was lifted,

Songs of Seeking, day by day
Sung while wearying on the way, —
Feeble cries of one who knows
Nor whence he comes, nor whither goes,
Yet of his own free will doth wear
The bloody Cross of those who fare
Upward and on in sad accord, —
The footsore Seekers of the Lord.

I.

O thou whose ears incline unto my singing,
Woman or man, thou surely bearest thy burden,
And I who sing, and all men, bear their burdens.

Even as a meteor-stone from suns afar,
I fell unto the ways of life and breathed,
Wherefore to much on earth I feel a stranger.

A House miraculous of breath
The royal Soul inhabiteth.
Alone therein for evermore,
It seeks in vain to pass the door;
But through the windows of the eyne
Signalleth to its kin divine. ...
This is a song Orm sang of old
To Oona with the locks of gold.

Come to me! clasp me!
Spirit to spirit!
Bosom to bosom!
Tenderly, clingingly,
Mingle to one! ...

Now, from my kisses
Withdrawing, and blushing,
Why dost thou gaze on me?
Why dost thou weep?

Songs of Corruption, woven thus,
With tender thoughts and tremulous,
Sitting with a solemn face
In an island burying-place,
While weary waves broke sad and slow
O'er weedy wastes of sand below,
And stretch'd on every side of me
The rainy grief of the gray Sea.

I.

Phantasy .

I F thou art an Angel,
Who hath seen thee,
O Phantasy, brooding

On the high path where few men fare,
Orm meeteth one with hoary hair,
And speaketh, solemn and afraid.
Of that which haunteth him — a Shade.
Slowly, with weary feet and weak,
They wander to a mountain peak;
And to the man with hoary hair
A Bridge of Spirits riseth fair,
Whereon his Soul with gentle moan
Passeth unto the Land Unknown.

I.

THE SHADOW .

O aged Man who, clad in pilgrim's garb,
With staff of thorn and wallet lying near,
Sittest among the weeds of the wayside,
Gazing with hollow eyeballs, in a dream,

How God in the beginning drew
Over his face the Veil of blue,
Wherefore no soul of mortal race
Hath ever look'd upon the Face;
Children of earth whose spirits fail
Heark to the First Song of the Veil.

I.

THE VEIL WOVEN .

In the beginning,
Ere Man grew,
The Veil was woven
Bright and blue;
Soft mists and vapours
Gather'd and mingled
Over the black world
Stretched below,
While winds of heaven
Blew from all places,
Shining luminous,
A starry snow.
Blindly, dumbly,
Darken'd under
Ocean and river,
Mountain and dale,

( TO BOOK OF ORM AND POLITICAL MYSTICS .)

When in these songs I name the Name of God,
I mean not Him who ruled with brazen rod
The rulers of the Jew; nor Him who calm
Sat reigning on Olympus; nay, nor Brahm,
Osiris, Allah, Odin, Balder, Thor,
(Though these I honour, with a hundred more);
Menu I mean not, nor the Man Divine,
The pallid Rainbow lighting Palestine;
Nor any lesser of the gods which Man
Hath conjured out of Night since Time began.
I mean the primal Mystery and Light,
The most Unfathomable, Infinite,