Sole fully blest, to feel
God whistle thee at heel;
Drunk up
As a dew-drop,
When He bends down, sun-wise,
Intemperable eyes;
Most proud,
When utterly bowed.
To feel thyself and be
His dear nonentity—
Caught
Beyond human thought
In the thunder-spout of Him,
Until thy being dim,
And be
Dead deathlessly.
Stoop, stoop; for thou dost fear
The nettle’s wrathful spear,
So slight
Art thou of might!
Rise; for Heaven hath no frown
When thou to thee pluck’st down,
Strong clod!
The neck of God.
ASSUMPTA MARIA
‘Thou needst not sing new songs, but say the old.’—Cowley.
Mortals, that behold a Woman,
Rising ’twixt the Moon and Sun;
Who am I the heavens assume? an
All am I, and I am one.
Multitudinous ascend I,
Dreadful as a battle arrayed,
For I bear you whither tend I;
Ye are I: be undismayed!
I, the Ark that for the graven
Tables of the Law was made;
Man’s own heart was one, one Heaven,
Both within my womb were laid.
For there Anteros with Eros
Heaven with man conjoinèd was,—
Twin-stone of the Law, Ischyros,
Agios Athanatos.