40 And mine in his was wound, and whirled And came on that which is, and caught Eonian music measuring out The steps of Time, the shocks of Chance,The blows of Death. At length my trance Was cancelled, stricken through with doubt. Vague words! but ah, how hard to frame Till now the doubtful dusk revealed The knolls once more where, couched at ease, The white kine glimmered, and the trees Laid their dark arms about the field: 56 And sucked from out the distant gloom, The large leaves of the sycamore, And gathering freshlier overhead, Rocked the full-foliaged elms, and swung The heavy-folded rose, and flung 64 "The dawn, the dawn," and died away; Mixed their dim lights, like life and death, To broaden into boundless day. Του ✓ ✓ XCIV. say, but with no touch of scorn, Are tender over drowning flies, I know not one indeed I knew In many a subtile question versed, Who touched a jarring lyre at first, But ever strove to make it true : Perplexed in faith, but pure in deeds, At last he beat his music out. There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds. He fought his doubts and gathered strength, He faced the spectres of the mind And laid them thus he came at length To find a stronger faith his own; And Power was with him in the night, Which makes the darkness and the light, And dwells not in the light alone, But in the darkness and the cloud, While Israel made their gods of gold XCV. My love has talked with rocks and trees, His own vast shadow glory-crowned, He sees himself in all he sees. I looked on these and thought of thee In vastness and in mystery, And of my spirit as of a wife. These two, they dwelt with eye on eye, Their hearts of old have beat in tune, Their meetings made December June, Their every parting was to die. Their love has never passed away; The days she never can forget Are earnest that he loves her yet, Whate'er the faithless people say. |