Part 15 (2/2)

Fall back, all worlds, into the abyss, That man may contemplate once more That which He ever was Who is:-- The Eternal Essence we adore.

Angelic hierarchies! recede Beyond extinct creation's shade!

What were ye at the first? Decreed:-- Decreed, not fas.h.i.+oned; thought, not made!

Like wind the untold Millenniums pa.s.sed.

Sole-throned He sat; yet not alone: G.o.dhead in G.o.dhead still was gla.s.sed;-- The Spirit was breathed from Sire and Son.

Prime Virgin, separate and sealed; Nor less of social love the root; Dimly in lowliest shapes revealed; Entire in every Attribute;--

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Thou liv'st in all things, and around; To Thee external is there nought; Thou of the boundless art the bound; And still Creation is Thy Thought.

In vain, O G.o.d, our wings we spread; So distant art Thou--yet so nigh.

Remains but this, when all is said, For Thee to live; in Thee to die.

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XIII.

Where is the crocus now, that first, When earth was dark and heaven was grey, A prothalamion flash, up-burst?

Ah, then we deemed not of the May!

The clear stream stagnates in its course; Narcissus droops in pallid gloom; Far off the hills of golden gorse A dusk Saturnian face a.s.sume.

The seeded dandelion dim Casts loose its air-globe on the breeze; Along the gra.s.s the swallows skim; The cattle couch among the trees.

Yet ever lordlier loveliness Succeeds to that which slips our hold: The thorn a.s.sumes her snowy dress; Laburnum bowers their robes of gold.

Down waves successive of the year We drop; but drop once more to rise, With ampler view, as on we steer, Of lovelier lights and loftier skies.

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_”Ad Nives.”_

XIV.

Before the morn began to break The bright One bent above that pair Whose childless vows aspired to take The mother of their Lord for heir.

'Twas August: even in midnight shade The roofs were hot, and hot the street:-- ”Build me a fane,” the vision said, ”Where first your eyes the snow shall meet.” [Footnote 6]

[Footnote 6: Santa Maria Maggiore, on the Esquiline, at Rome.]

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