Classic Poem

Before eternity to time had shrunken,
The Friend [God] deep in his glorious self was sunken.
Around his charms a firm-bound girdle hovered:
No one the lonely path to him discovered.
A mirror held he to each wondrous feature,
But shared the vision's bliss with not a creature.
In cradling Naught's abyss alone he rocked him,
No playmate's face or gambols sportive mocked him.
Then rose He up—swift vanished all resistance—
And gave the boundless universe existence.
Now Beauty, sun-clear, from his right side beameth;
Love, moon-light, quickly from his left side gleameth.
When Beauty's flame lights up the cheek's red roses,
Love fans a fire from which no heart reposes.
Between them glows a league which forms no cinder,
But from all Beauty's food creates Love's tinder.
When Beauty 'midst her snaring ringlets lieth,
Then Love the heart within those fair locks tieth.
A nest is Beauty, Love the brooding linnet:
A mine is Beauty, Love the diamond in it.
From God's two sides they came, twin emanation,
To chase and woo each other through creation.
But in each atom's point, both, clasping, enter,
And constitute all being's blissful centre.