“Would that I, amid the splendour
Of the thunder-blasts, could render
Back the dismal dole of birth,
Fusing soul-clouds in the girth
Of thy rock breasts, or the tender
Green of everlasting earth.
“Haply, when the scud was flying
And the lurid daylight dying
Through the rain-smoke on the sea,
Thoughtless, painless, one with thee,
I, in perfect bondage lying,
Should forever thus be free.
“Mighty spirits, who have striven
Up life’s ladder-rounds to heaven,
Or ye freighted ones who fell
On the poppy slopes of hell,
When the soul was led or driven,
Knew ye not who wrought the spell?
“Understood not each his brother
From the features of our mother
Stamped on every human face?
Did not earth, man’s dwelling place,
Draw ye to her as no other,
With a stronger bond than grace?
“Tempest hands the forests rending,
Placid stars the night attending,
Mountains, storm-clouds, land and sea,
Nature!—make me one with thee;
From my soul its pinions rending,
Chain me to thy liberty.
“Hark! the foot of death is nearing,
And my spirit aches with fearing,
Hear me, mother, hear my cry,
Merge me in the harmony
Of thy voice which stars are hearing
Wonder-stricken in the sky.
“Mother, will no sorrow move thee?
Does the silence heartless prove thee?
Thou who from the rocks and rain
Mad’st this soul, take back again
What thy fingers wrought to love thee
Through the furnace of its pain.
“Giant boulders, roll beside me,
Tangled ferns, bow down and hide me,
Hide me from the face of death;
Or, great Nature, on thy breath
Send some mighty words to guide me,
Till the demon vanisheth.”
Then as sweet as organ playing,
Came a voice, my fears allaying,
From the mountains and the sea,
“Wouldst thou, soul, be one with me,
In thy might the slayer slaying?
Wrestle not with what must be.”
Heart and spirit in devotion,
Vibrant with divine emotion,
Bowed before that mighty sound,
And amid the dark around
Quaffed the strength of land and ocean
In a sacrament profound.