"Ah, you have suffered, you have sinned,
Have known the dark abyss,
Have felt upon the roaring wind
The phantom of a kiss;
"You have looked in a woman's eyes
Lit with her love of you,
And such a moment made you wise!"
He murmured: "It is true."
"Tell me, O priest, was it not worth
Eternity of hell,
When in your heart dear love had birth?"—
Tears from his closed eyes fell.
"Then your great moment gives the point
To what I said before—
There is no evil. You anoint
The spirit's open door—
"A dying body—set the seal
Of some old covenant,
As though the spirit did not feel
The Comrade-Visitant;
"As though the soul were not God's son
Knowing as he is known,
Who hath by cross and passion won
His place beside the throne!
"If all my life were in the dark
And dread of endless doom,
Think you that I should fail the spark
That gleamed athwart the gloom—
"My moment when I soared to bliss
Upon a woman's lips
And that revealing word—her kiss—
Thrilled to my finger tips?
"Nay; by that instant I should know
Evil—so called—worth while,
Accept the challenge, forward go
Bravely against the mile;
"Till by degrees the lengthened space
Should give me stronger thews,
A firmer tread, a purer face,
A never-empty cruse: