X. “The fearless soul emerging thence Feels something of omnipotence;— Upon the mountain tops his feet Will tread in joy, and gladly beat The golden shores of summer seas; And he will hear in every breeze Divinest music; even the storm That bends the proud oak’s stubborn form, And howls athwart the naked land, Will bring to him an utterance grand, Engendering noble thoughts, and power To serve him in some trying hour.
XI. “Revere fair Nature’s balanced laws, Nor rashly deem them framed with flaws; The discord which thou seem’st to find In them is part of thine own mind. Put that in tune, and, for the sake Of darkened faces, strive to make The world more happy; do this thing, And thy despondent muse shall wring Sweet nectar out of weed and cloud.”
XII. Silent, though unconvinced, I bowed My head abashed; with firmer trust, And higher faith, I shook the dust Of utter doubt from reason’s plume; And through small openings in the gloom I half discerned a meaning new In that which seemed before untrue: The ever-present Lord of all Compassionates a sparrow’s fall.
CELESTINE.
I. I must not look on you nor think of you,— Must seek close kinship with forgetfulness; Such looks as thine but make a strong man rue That ever in his heart’s devout excess The shadow of thy soul he did pursue Through many a golden hour for one caress; ’Twas but a noontide dream, A phantom fire, a gleam Of heaven wasted in a wilderness.
II. I wake and wonder at the vision gone, Sweet music borne upon a winter blast, A beauty filched from sunset and the dawn, A marvel too ethereal to last; And now a heavy sadness falls upon My spirit and the world, both overcast With thunderstorm and gloom, In which there is no room For any ray of the enchanted past.
III. I chide the fond delirium of my brow, And only pray that you forgive, forget The homage of a man who doth avow His folly with a penitent’s regret; Such adoration even the gods allow, For thou art as a star divinely set In heaven’s perfect blue, I can but sigh for you In lonely ways with night dews chilled and wet.