Life is Eternal Becoming that down the cascade of the ages
Streams with tumultuous force, to which the glittering rapids
Of the broad-flowing Milky Way seem an insignificant runnel
That gleams for a moment beneath the ageless sun of eternity.
Life is a torrent outpoured from an inexhaustible chalice,
A cornucopia held in the hand of an unseen Divinity,
A supreme thank-offering made to Himself, a mystic libation,
Whose myriad drops when united prefigure the Oneness of Spirit.
It carries the galleon of Time on its flood like a lordly Amazon.
It worms its way through the tiniest crevice of Space, returning
To the chalice from which it has issued, as water returns to the fountains,
Pulsing through every vein of an universe otherwise lifeless,
Till it recurs at long last to the mighty Heart of All Things.
Yet very moment 'tis real, as real as the Mind that controls it;
That sits enthroned in the midst of all, unmoved and unaltered.
For consider the Ocean, the symbol alike of Time and Eternity,
Whose restless bosom heaves with the rhythmical throb of the billow,
While the fathomless depths below the turmoil and toil of its fluxes
Abide unchanged in their watery fortress forever and ever.
Yet real is the transient course, as real as the changeless abysses.