m-ii 
 
 ■ ":.., 
 
 SIDNEY- ROYSE 
 LYSAGHT*-* 
 
(ttmntll Itatvmitg fpitawg 
 
 5nqlfc>h Collection 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 3 nines III organ Hart 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 6023.Y93P7 
 
 Poems of the unknown way. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 3658475 
 
POEMS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNKNOWN WAY 
 
Poems 
 
 of 
 
 The Unknown Way 
 
 SIDNEY ROYSE LYSAGHT 
 
 ILontfon , 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED, 
 
 NEW YORK I THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 I90I 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 To my Comrades 3 
 
 Outward Bound 6 
 
 The Sea Plains . . ... 8 
 
 Midnight . 12 
 
 The Unexpressed 14 
 
 Storm 16 
 
 After Storm 18 
 
 Calm 19 
 
 The Secret of the Deeps .... 20 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Broken Clue 24 
 
 Far South 26 
 
 A Star 28 
 
 Storm on the Sea Plains .... 30 
 
 A Haven 34 
 
 A Silent Shore 36 
 
 The Islands 38 
 
 Dreams 42 
 
 Day and Night 43 
 
 An Exile 45 
 
 The Penalty of Love 47 
 
 Music at Sea 49 
 
 The Soul of the Wanderer . .51 
 
 The Lost World 54 
 
 The Unexplored 56 
 
 The Ends of the Earth .... 60 
 
CONTENTS vif 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Loss, or Gain ? 65, 
 
 The Undiscovered Shore . . .67 
 
 II 
 A RITUAL 
 
 A Confession of Unfaith . . .75- 
 
 Creditis — Credimus. 
 
 A General Confession . . .85 
 A Psalm 91 
 
 Venite, gaudium canamus I 
 
 A Lesson 94. 
 
 (From the Book of Genesis.) 
 
 A Psalm 101 
 
 Sit nobis templwn. < 
 
 A Second Lesson 104. 
 
 (From the Apocalypse.) 
 
 A Psalm 124 
 
 Domic s nostra inprofundisl 
 
 A Litany of Peace and War . . 13& 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 An Epistle to the Laodiceans . 147 
 
 A Hymn . . • iS9 
 
 Non preces nobis communes. 
 
 A Confession of Hope . . .163 
 
 Finis adest vital : lacrimae mortalibus. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
TO MY COMRADES 
 
 You, who once dreamed on earth to make your 
 
 mark 
 And kindle beacons where its ways were dark ; 
 To whom, for the world that had no need of 
 you, 
 It once had seemed a little thing to die ; 
 Who gave the world your best, and in return 
 No honour won and no reward could earn ! 
 Sad Comrade ! we were shipmates in one 
 crew, — 
 Somewhere we sailed together, you and I. 
 
4 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 you of little faith, the promised heir 
 Of life eternal, mourning days that were ; 
 You, who to lift up one belovid head 
 
 Out of the dust and feel one presence nigh,— 
 To make again one vanished summer live, 
 Your birthright of eternal life would give ! 
 I also murmur, " Give me back my dead ! " 
 The comrade of your unbelief am I. 
 
 You, against whom all fates have been arrayed ; 
 Who heard the voice of God and disobeyed ; 
 Who, reckless and with all your battles lost, 
 Went forth again another chance to try ; 
 Who, fighting desperate odds yet fought to win, 
 And sinning bore the burden of your sin ! 
 
 We have been on the same rough ocean tossed, 
 And served the same wild captain, you and I. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 5 
 
 You, who desired no laurel of the race 
 But the approval of one absent face ; 
 
 For whom has earth no home, no place of rest 
 Save in the bosom where you may not lie ; 
 Beggared of all but Love's immortal right, 
 Still for the sake of one you lost to fight ! 
 Oh, we have met upon the unknown quest 
 And watched the stars together, you and 1 1 
 
 wanderer, if at last your ship should find 
 Home, and the sheltered havens left behind, 
 I shall be with you in that merry crew 
 Under the same old flag we used to fly ; 
 But, if at last, of every promise shorn, 
 With leaking timbers and with canvas torn, 
 Still for the pride of seamanship sail you, — 
 There also, in your chartless ship, sail I. 
 
OUTWARD BOUND 
 
 Down the horizons, ring by ring, 
 Over the windy seas we swing : 
 We are away for Eldorado, — 
 Up in the bows the sailors sing. 
 
 For many a day the wind was fair ; 
 We passed to the south of Finisterre ; 
 
 We heard the chimes of the bells of Lisbon 
 Blown over-sea on the evening air. 
 
 We crossed the plains of the old sea-wars, 
 And old-world harbours with crowded spars ; 
 
 And over the vales of Andalusia 
 Fell the night and arose the stars. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 7 
 
 And, sailing by sea-ways old, we came 
 To many a coast of ancient fame, 
 
 Where every isle has a golden story, 
 And every haven a golden name. 
 
 But bells beyond the horizon rung, 
 
 And stars grown old when the world was young, 
 
 Called us away to the unknown seas 
 Of the isles un-named and the songs unsung. 
 
 The haven's rest and the comrades kind, 
 And the maidens merry we leave behind : 
 
 We are away for Eldorado, 
 Our dreams to seek and our lost to find. 
 
 Wilder each -morn the west wind blows, 
 Softer each night the starlight glows : 
 
 We are away for Eldorado, 
 Over the sea that no man knows. 
 
THE SEA PLAINS 
 
 It was evening, and we came to the seas where 
 the south wind sleeps ; 
 And the skies were of softer bloom than 
 
 those we had seen of old. 
 The glimmering plains of the sea to wider 
 horizons rolled : 
 Great stars were watching in darker and lonelier 
 deeps. 
 
 Late in the afternoon the shafts of the sunlight 
 smote 
 The clouds to a mystic change, as with 
 touch of enchanters' rods ; 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 9 
 
 And at twilight and at night strange shapes, 
 as in dreams of gods, 
 Phantasmal, stood on the sea, or wandered in 
 tracts remote. 
 
 On amber skies to northward the dark sea- 
 forests gloomed ; 
 Strange knights on unknown quests were 
 
 out on the golden plains ; 
 A sorceress, by the sun -gates, spun woofs 
 of crimson skeins ; 
 Over the south horizon a fleet of galleons 
 loomed. 
 
 And a cloud on the eastern sky, fold on 
 billowy fold 
 Built to a dome of rose, stood out of the 
 dark sea-blue ; 
 
io THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 And thunder out of it came, and lightning 
 threaded it through, 
 Crowning its dome with fire and flashing its 
 rose with gold. 
 
 And now in the light of the moon, and now in 
 the light of the stars, 
 A sound as of tired wings high over the top- 
 mast stirred. 
 And lo ! when the moon was set and the 
 stars were hidden, we heard 
 The cannon of long-fought fields, the murmur 
 of old sea-wars. 
 
 Where doth our venture lead ? Oh, it's south- 
 ward still we go ! 
 It was evening, — and we passed from the 
 seas where the south winds sleep. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE u 
 
 And under the bows at night the waves 
 began to leap ; 
 And 'twas morning, and we came to the seas 
 where the south winds blow. 
 
MIDNIGHT 
 
 We heard the lonely note of our ship's bell 
 Sounding the hour at night on quiet waters. 
 The watchman cried, " All's well, — the lights 
 are burning ! " 
 Over that dark and silent sea, " All's well ! " 
 The dipping bows swung to the long sea- 
 rhythm ; 
 The masts against the starlight rose and fell. 
 
 And in the bows we lay 
 And listened to the waters ; 
 And long we watched the starlight and the 
 realms 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 13 
 
 Of silver silence in the Milky Way, 
 
 And magic isles of the Magellan clouds. 
 The wind sang soft amid the shrouds, — 
 
 The wind and water sounded far away. 
 
THE UNEXPRESSED 
 
 Earth's voices tremble with the unexpressed, — 
 That was some former life's forgotten word 
 That o'er the waters in the night wind 
 stirred ! — 
 
 And dreams untold and secrets never guessed. 
 
 They give us clues, but keep from us the rest, — 
 The sweetest notes of wind and wave and bird 
 Tell us of songs that none have ever heard, — 
 
 And send us forth upon an unknown quest. 
 
 They keep their secrets : bird and wave and 
 breeze 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 15 
 
 Whisper each other's, but withhold their own. 
 The evening wind at home among the trees 
 
 Sings of the wandering waves of oceans 
 lone ; 
 And here the waves of the uncharted seas 
 
 Murmur the wind's familiar woodland tone. 
 
STORM 
 
 FOAM -STRICKEN, spray -lashed, black to the 
 edge of the farthest horizon, — 
 
 Black in the noon, hard pressed, hurled back- 
 ward, hurled downward, on-goaded, — 
 
 The sea-hosts stricken, unvanquished, uplifted 
 in fury stupendous, 
 
 Flee from the strong wild west ; and the voice 
 of the wind-maddened waves howls 
 
 Back to the trumpeting wind. An albatross, 
 wheeling in circles, 
 
 Sails with a wing to the clouds and a wing to 
 the touch of the billow, 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 17 
 
 Glad in the tumult's midst. And a day and a 
 
 night and a morrow 
 The conqueror hunts in his joy, and the routed 
 
 untameable thunders. 
 
AFTER STORM 
 
 The wind fell, and the waters, gathering slow, 
 Swung to the primal rhythm of the deep, 
 In grand procession and triumphal sweep, 
 
 With undertones of night and ancient woe. 
 
 A thousand miles of ocean eastward curled, 
 And, lifting stately waves of midnight-blue, 
 Green - crested where the sunlight flashed 
 them through, 
 
 Rolled onward to the swing of the rolling world. 
 
CALM 
 
 Far down the world we found upon our quest 
 The lonely cloisters of the ocean's rest. 
 The great sea-rhythms move not here at all ; 
 But silence, and the league-long rise and fall 
 Of slumbering blue, and wings of eve and dawn, 
 And silver paths across the midnight drawn ; 
 Nor shadow falls, nor wind forever blows 
 Over that immemorial repose. 
 
THE SECRET OF THE DEEPS 
 
 We sailed by the old world's tideways, down 
 through the long sea-lanes, 
 Into the ends of the south, over horizons 
 new ; 
 Deeper the skies rose o'er us, and round us the 
 ocean plains 
 Were held in a lonelier silence and folded in 
 softer blue. 
 
 There are no farther skies, no lonelier seas to 
 seek, 
 Never a bourne remoter for wandering sail 
 to find. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 21 
 
 But we hear no voice that is new, — the wind 
 and the water speak 
 As they spoke of old on the seas of the 
 world we left behind. 
 
 The mystery eternal, that troubled the world of 
 old, 
 Here, in the midnight stillness, moves on the 
 unknown deeps ; 
 And here the ancient secret, that never to man 
 was told, 
 The rose of the morning treasures, the blue 
 of the noonday keeps. 
 
 Haply, we think, the secret may be shown to 
 us here and now, 
 Far from the land's disquiet and. the world's 
 unresting crowds : 
 
22 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 And near it seemed in the whisper of ripples 
 beneath the bow ; 
 Half won, then lost, in the sighing of wind 
 at night in the shrouds. 
 
 When the sea began to reveal it, when its azure 
 almost gave 
 The key, a wandering cloud stole it, bore it 
 afar. 
 And again we had all but read it in the track 
 of a star on the wave, 
 And lo ! it was gone, aloof in the silence 
 beyond the star. 
 
 So passed we out of that ocean, as guests from 
 a dim-lit hall 
 When the night is late, and the sound of the 
 music is heard no more, 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 23 
 
 And ghostly voices whisper, and soundless foot- 
 steps fall, 
 Under the silent roof- tree, over the windy 
 floor. 
 
A BROKEN CLUE 
 
 O WANDERER in the world's old ocean-ways, 
 
 Sad for the Beauty which you cannot keep, — 
 The light of golden days, 
 
 The magic of the twilight on the deep, 
 And night and shadowy shores and towns 
 asleep ! 
 If but the comrade of your heart were near 
 Your great regret to share, 
 
 Your mutual loss should be your recompense ; 
 And Love's immortal. art for you should 
 find 
 Songs of the hours you leave in passing 
 hence, 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 25 
 
 And requiems of lost magnificence, 
 
 Lovelier than any voice you leave behind. 
 
 If one were near, 
 
 Then Heaven would be more homely, earth 
 more dear. 
 If in your wandering you could touch one 
 hand, 
 No longer would earth's unread riddle vex 
 Your spirit, or the starry signs perplex : 
 For you Would feel where none may under- 
 stand, 
 And in your dreams would hear 
 
 The password of the gates of wonderland, 
 And make the benediction all your own 
 Of twilight fading on the lonely cliff, 
 And read the ocean's azure hieroglyph, 
 And catch the wave's primeval undertone. 
 
FAR SOUTH 
 
 The far green shores amid the seas of gray, 
 
 The stars above the land we used to know, 
 We had forgotten, — 'twas so far away, — 
 
 We had forgotten, — 'twas so long ago. 
 Our lonely pilot was the wandering breeze 
 
 Whose voice we heard at midnight in the 
 shrouds ; 
 We followed in the moon, o'er unknown 
 seas, 
 
 The pilgrimage of silver-hooded clouds ; 
 With rolling mists we drifted, or we steered 
 To lights that with the morning disappeared. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 27 
 
 No sail, nor shore ; but once at flash of dawn, 
 When farthest from the world we knew with- 
 drawn, 
 We saw green peaks and towers of ice arise 
 Against the wild-rose of Antarctic skies ; 
 And, over violet seas, the Eastern glow 
 Fell on an iceberg's wandering hills of snow. 
 And, with the suprise,- pinnacles and spires 
 And crags and headlands flashed jsii silver fires ; 
 And crystal waters broke on silver shores, 
 And filled its caves' reverberant corridors. 
 But, with the coming of the full blue day, 
 White, like a ship of ghosts, it passed away. 
 And -lonelier seemed our pathway than before, 
 And farther off the undiscovered shore. 
 
A STAR 
 
 Night after night you watch one star appear ; 
 And in your heart those hours you enshrine 
 When on our ocean path we see it shine. 
 
 You tell me by what name men know it here, 
 And call it yours and mine. 
 
 For you it makes those spaces, still and 
 lone, 
 Kinder, — the awe of the unfathomed less, 
 And gives the infinite a homeliness ; 
 
 As some familiar flower, in lands unknown, 
 A wanderer's path may bless. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 29 
 
 To me its gleam of tender radiance links 
 No Heaven with the earth we leave behind ; 
 But seems a light, o'er wastes of wave and 
 wind, 
 
 That shows a wanderer, on a ship that sinks, 
 The shore he may not find. 
 
STORM ON THE SEA PLAINS 
 
 Cloud summits, faery peaks of gold, 
 
 Rose in a sunlit chain. 
 The shadows of a thousand domes 
 
 Fell on the far sea plain. 
 
 And grander soared the mountain towers, 
 
 And darker in our track 
 Their shadows fell, and, suddenly, 
 
 The gold was smitten black. 
 
 In skies remote, through peaks and domes, 
 
 A distant thunder rolled : 
 A distant lightning upward shot, 
 
 And smote the black to gold. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 31 
 
 The deep was filled with ghostly shapes, 
 
 The wind with notes of doom ; 
 And spectres of the old sea gods 
 
 Moved round us in the gloom. 
 
 Like drums of an advancing host 
 
 The roll of thunder came ; 
 And on the blue-black crags of storm 
 
 Glimmered the copper flame. 
 
 The earth we knew was far away : 
 
 The cloudland was our world. 
 We saw mad legions of the air 
 
 Against each other hurled. 
 
 The bolts of chaos were unloosed, 
 The guns of hell were rammed, 
 
 In a war of the Infernal gods,— 
 In a battle of the Damned, 
 
32 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 And louder swelled the sounds of doom, 
 
 And bluer ran the flash ; 
 And domes and crags and pinnacles 
 
 Fell inward with a crash. 
 
 And all was fall'n and shapeless wreck, 
 
 Chaos and ruin loud, — 
 A city of the dead on fire, 
 
 Blurred in a rainy cloud. 
 
 - Then, louder than the thunder, grew 
 The rain's unceasing sound : 
 In ruined heaps the city hissed, 
 In flood the flames were drowned. 
 
 And all grew cold and desolate : 
 The wind swept through the rain : 
 
 No mark of that which had been dwelt 
 On the lonely ocean plain. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 33 
 
 Lost remnants of the cloudy host, 
 
 Stricken and overcome, 
 Fled down the east ; and thunders lone 
 
 Rolled like a distant drum. 
 
 But, ere the setting of the sun, 
 
 We saw the rain-cloud lift ; 
 And far away in the northern sky 
 
 Opened a silver rift. 
 
 And round the edges of the south 
 
 To gold the silver grew, 
 And in the spaces of the north , 
 
 Long lanes of evening-blue. 
 
 And flying storm-clouds, crested white, 
 
 Shone o'er the seas afar ; 
 And light of rose was in the west, 
 
 And in the east a star. 
 
 D 
 
A HAVEN 
 
 SHIPS are anchored, sails are furled, 
 Shore-lights in the dusk appear ; 
 Faint, and far away, we hear 
 
 Roaring sea-ways of the world. 
 
 In the haven's sheltered walls 
 
 Soft the starry silence falls ; 
 
 Winds that drove us through the deep 
 
 Touch us now as soft as sleep ; 
 
 Waves that smote before are now 
 
 Rippled whispers at the bow. 
 
 Dim lights glimmer on the ships, 
 Shadowy figures cross the decks, 
 Golden flashing phosphor-specks 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 35 
 
 Sparkle where an. oar blade dips. 
 Large, above the steady spars, 
 Shine the radiant southern stars ; 
 Falls, from crystal heights of air, 
 Sound of wings that sea-ward fare ; 
 Inland, still and dark and lone, 
 Night enfolds a land unknown. 
 Weary wanderers may stay 
 
 Here awhile the unknown quest ; 
 Seekers of the far-away 
 
 Here a little while may rest. 
 
A SILENT SHORE 
 
 The solitude of shores by man unclaimed, 
 
 Peaks of unventured mountains, streams un- 
 named, 
 
 And forests unexplored, and paths unknown, 
 
 Lie here around us, — still, and vast, and lone. 
 
 No record of the years have they, — no song ; 
 
 No tidings of unrest and right and wrong 
 
 And hope and fear and love and death and 
 birth, 
 
 That weave the stormy story of the earth. 
 
 But through the ages they have still pursued 
 
 Primeval labours in their solitude ; 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 37 
 
 And through the silent centuries have won 
 Secrets of beauty from the rain and sun ; 
 And from the morning mists and evening dew 
 Filled up their treasuries of scent and hue. 
 
 Here have they wrought a thousand years to 
 
 dower 
 With lovelier form the unbeholden flower, 
 To hide the moonlight in a gem, or bring 
 A subtler motion to an insect's wing, 
 Or to a bird's song add a note that tells 
 The joy that in their lonely labour dwells. 
 Here have they striven, age by age, to write 
 In things that perish, tidings infinite ; 
 In things that change, the wonder that abides, 
 The hope that beckons, and the love that hides. 
 
THE ISLANDS 
 
 We thought no more of the morrow, we forgot 
 the oath we swore, 
 And the hope of our great adventure, and 
 
 the old-world griefs, — 
 For we saw the moonlight shining on the 
 folds of silver reefs, 
 And we heard the wind in the palm-trees, and 
 the song of an island shore. 
 
 In the calm of the ocean cloisters, ringed in 
 the outer blue, 
 Were ours the windless havens of the flower- 
 blue coral seas : 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 39 
 
 . We wandered apart at noonday in the 
 
 twilight of the trees/] 
 In the island rest enfolded, unburdened of all 
 
 we knew. 
 
 Down to the sands of silver ran the long palm 
 lanes : 
 Oh the vales of dark ovava, and the oleander 
 
 glades ! 
 Above our heads in lucent domes of inter- 
 woven shades 
 Blue belfries of convolvulus hung down from 
 airy chains. 
 
 With chiefs, by the ovava tree, we drank of the 
 kava bowl ; 
 We lay us down in the starlight under 
 oleander boughs : 
 
40 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 The sleep-touch of the island maids was soft 
 upon our brows, — 
 Through winding ways of hidden life their 
 dream-song stole. 
 
 Oh ! why may we stay not here and forget the 
 unknown quest? 
 Why were we born to decide between the 
 
 good and the ill ? 
 Why were we born to begin a task we may 
 ne'er fulfil ? 
 Oh ! why were we born to love with a love 
 that brings no rest? 
 
 We passed by the graves of the island kings, 
 and the trees at the graves ; 
 We stood beneath the ghost-trees, — soft the 
 night wind stirred ; 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 41 
 
 And of strange forgotten sorrows in voices 
 far we heard ; 
 And amid the ghost -trees 1 whisper was the 
 murmur of northern waves. 
 
 Old spells were cast about us, and the magic 
 of old decrees : 
 We cannot turn from our future, we cannot 
 
 hide from our past ; 
 For us the way is onward, and we gathered 
 about the mast, 
 And we sailed away in the dawn from the isles 
 of the flower-blue seas. 
 
DREAMS 
 
 Dreams lead us on. We find on sea or land 
 No morn so glad, no stars in Heaven so fair 
 As those we dreamed. Over a lonelier 
 
 deep 
 They beckon us, and whisper in our sleep 
 A memory of things that never were. 
 
 Dreams lead us on. We know not what 
 strange hand 
 Sowed them, or what fair presence on the sea 
 Passed and left dreams behind it, wild 
 
 and sweet, 
 On lonely paths, as flowers sprung to greet 
 The woodland footsteps of Persephone. 
 
DAY AND NIGHT 
 
 EVEN as some bird that, lovely in its passage, 
 Folding its wings is lovelier in rest ; 
 
 So passed the day that, folding wings of twi- 
 light, 
 Broods on the wild-rose waters in the west. 
 
 We had been content to see no lonely splendour, 
 Dreaming still of Heaven beyond the western 
 gate, — 
 But that the darkness robbed us of our day- 
 dream, 
 But that the night revealed to us our fate. 
 
44 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 Noonday is ours, and the dawn and the twilight. 
 Boundaries of sunshine, golden prison-bars 
 
 Shelter us from Heaven. The shadow of the 
 night's wing 
 Frees us, and leaves us lost among the stars. 
 
AN EXILE 
 
 He made the whole wide earth a barrier 
 
 Between them, and of sea and rain and wind 
 And heights of whirling snow, a veil to blind 
 
 His sight against the face he held most dear. 
 
 He made far mountain lands and deserts drear 
 A wall between him and the memories kind 
 Of all that might have been, and left behind 
 
 Her sweetness in another hemisphere. 
 
 But sometimes, far upon the lonely deep 
 At midnight, when the stormy watch is o'er, 
 
46 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 His arms enfold her as he falls asleep ; 
 
 And sometimes, when the light is growing 
 dim 
 On winter evenings, she unbars the door, , 
 And through the wide world wanders, 
 seeking him. 
 
THE PENALTY OF LOVE 
 
 If Love should count you worthy, and should 
 deign 
 One day to seek your door and be your guest, 
 Pause ! ere you draw the bolt and bid him 
 rest, 
 
 If in your old content you would remain. 
 
 For not alone he enters : in his train 
 
 Are angels of the mists, the lonely quest, 
 Dreams of the unfulfilled and unpossessed, 
 
 And sorrow, and Life's immemorial pain. 
 
 He wakes desires you never may forget, 
 He shows you stars you never saw before, 
 
48 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 He makes you share with him, for evermore, 
 The burden of the world's divine regret. 
 How wise were you to open not ! — and yet, 
 
 How poor if you should turn him from the 
 door. 
 
MUSIC AT SEA 
 
 A THOUSAND miles of storm enfold our ship. 
 List ! 'tis a woodland song of long ago, — 
 A spring - song of . the paths we used to 
 know. 
 
 Night falls : we stagger in the cyclone's grip. 
 
 The ocean is a groan, the wind a whip ; 
 That was the whisper of the south-west, low 
 And sweet in meadows where the cowslips 
 grow ! 
 
 And through the wilderness of seas we dip. 
 
 Seems in our ears far off the roll -and sweep 
 
 Of rushing waters in this ocean lone. 
 E 
 
So THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 She sings, and in the exile of the deep 
 
 Makes the old sweetness of the earth our own. 
 
 We see the kine in dewy fields asleep, 
 
 And hear the bees in cloistered gardens 
 drone. 
 
THE SOUL OF THE WANDERER 
 
 O WANDERER, look deep into your soul 
 And ask what blessing you desire most ! 
 Now when the stars that guided you are lost, 
 And in the stormy deep you find no goal. 
 Would you the haven's rest, O wanderer ? 
 Rest from the conflict of the beating seas, 
 Home and a sheltered garden and fair trees, 
 And gentle winds that in the woodland stir ? 
 Would you the song of birds, the hum of bees, 
 And far away the murmur of the shore ? 
 Nay, for if these were given to you, and 
 more, 
 
52 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 You would not long remain content with 
 these. 
 
 Then would old dreams become to you a spur, 
 And tell of distant quests and running seas,. 
 And lights of unknown ports at twilight 
 glowing : 
 Then would you gladly give your woodland 
 peace 
 To win the freedom of the wanderer, 
 
 And feel the winds of the world about you 
 
 blowing : 
 
 Then would you muse on all that you had lost ; 
 
 Your garden boundaries would seem as walls 
 
 Between you and the hope supreme, that calls 
 
 Over the waters to the tempest-tossed. 
 
 Yet, should you find again the wild sea- 
 track, 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 53 
 
 Whispers of woodland peace would call 
 you back. 
 
 There is a weariness of sailing on 
 Without a goal, a weariness of rest 
 In haunts of peace, while there remains a 
 quest 
 
 Unventured, or a battle still unwon. 
 
 You would not of the homeless ocean tire 
 If you could know your seeking had not 
 
 failed, — 
 That every long watch kept, each storm out- 
 sailed, 
 
 Should bring you nearer to your heart's desire ; 
 If you could see, beyond the dark and rough, 
 
 Hope of the haven lights, of torn sails furled, 
 And love that waited for you, dear enough 
 
 To make your garden boundaries your world. 
 
THE LOST WORLD 
 
 Vast, we saw, when the sun was low, 
 
 A trackless forest where none may roam ; 
 
 But 'twas not so vast as a wood we know 
 Across three fields from the house at home. 
 
 We saw the peaks of eternal snow, 
 
 The summits that foot of man ne'er clomb ; 
 
 But they're not so high as a hill we know 
 At the lonely end of a moor at home. 
 
 Cities, we entered, with lights aglow 
 On many a palace, many a dome ; 
 
 But they're not so grand as a port we know 
 When the ships come in from the sea at home. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 55 
 
 For. the seas grow narrow, the hills fall low, 
 And the world is small when its bounds you 
 roam. 
 
 But the wonderful world we used to know 
 Is still out over the hills at home. 
 
THE UNEXPLORED 
 
 Out of lonely seas we sailed 
 
 After dusk, and crossed the bar 
 Ere the darkness wholly veiled 
 
 Haven shores and lands afar ; 
 Ere the path of wild-rose light 
 O'er the hills had faded quite, 
 Or the shore-lights' golden rays 
 Glowed across the water-ways. 
 
 Wonderlands of which we dreamed 
 Over the unventtired seas 
 
 Never more enchanted seemed, 
 Never lovelier than these ; 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE $7 
 
 These that, hidden till the dawn 
 
 Now no boundary confines, 
 Save where starry skies have drawn 
 
 Silvery horizon lines. 
 
 There, between the veiled and shown, 
 Wonders hidden are our own ; 
 Forest voices whisper there 
 Lore of days that never were ; 
 Secrets vision hides we find 
 Written in the undefined ; 
 Revelations in the guessed, 
 Treasures in the unpossessed. 
 
 Darker, over waters dark, 
 
 Loom the shores ; and still remains, 
 Here and there, a light to mark 
 
 Ships along the haven lanes. 
 
58 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 Softer, over ripples soft, 
 
 Far away the sea-winds blow ; 
 
 Fairer than the stars aloft 
 
 Shine the stars in depths below. 
 
 Ah ! what seek we ? Even now, 
 While we wonder, we endow 
 All things near us and afar 
 With the dreams that nowhere are : 
 Reading into the unknown 
 Hopes that we have long outgrown, 
 Weaving into the unseen 
 Tidings of the might-have-been. 
 
 Soon along the eastern rim 
 
 Light shall steal, and silver mist 
 
 Flash to rose, and uplands dim 
 Wake in folds of amethyst. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 59 
 
 Soon shall tidings twilight told, 
 
 Soon shall pathways starlight drew 
 
 Vanish in the morning's gold, 
 Hide behind the noonday's blue. 
 
 Now, till morn, remain our own 
 
 Magic shores of old surmise, 
 Peaks no morning can dethrone, 
 
 Lands that know no boundaries. 
 There the unfulfilled abides ; 
 
 There the touch of night unbars 
 Gates of ways that noonday hides, 
 
 Paths that reach beyond the stars. 
 
THE ENDS OF THE EARTH 
 
 In the days of the old sea ventures, when the 
 sail was spread for the quest, 
 There was in every ocean the hope of an 
 
 unknown shore, — 
 Beyond the orient gateways a farther east to 
 explore, 
 And ever a west unreached beyond the Isles of 
 the west. 
 
 And their hearts grew great in the thought 
 that the world in which they were born 
 Was wide as the heavens are wide and knew 
 no limit or bound, 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 61 
 
 And that ever beyond the farthest a farther 
 might still be found, 
 Westward below the evening and eastward 
 behind the morn. 
 
 Now we know our little earth, we have come 
 to the end too soon 
 Of the ways that were once so long, and the 
 
 seas that were once so wide ; 
 And the gulfs of space en-ring us, we are 
 bounded on every side 
 By the starry deeps of the night, and the path- 
 less blue of the noon. 
 
 The way we took to the southward leads us 
 again to the north, 
 And the star that beckoned our quest is the 
 same that calls our return. 
 
62 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 Shall our hearts grow small with the truth 
 that, of old, men perished to learn ? 
 Shall we call it a home or a prison, from which 
 there is no way forth ? 
 
 When man wins truth from the years, the loss 
 with his dreams he pays ; 
 But in time the knowledge he won but leads 
 
 again to a dream. 
 And the wonder ever remains ; and a mys- 
 tery more supreme 
 Than the distant promised of old, is hidden in 
 homely ways. 
 
 For the spell of the unfound shore has gathered 
 above our own ; 
 And the magic of old sea dreams is treasured 
 in wayside flowers ; 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 63 
 
 And tidings of Love immortal are whispered 
 from vanishing hours ; 
 And the secret of unknown beauty trembles at 
 heart of the known. 
 
 The music the world once heard we hear in a 
 softer key ; 
 And a meaning the old world missed 
 
 awakens in ancient song ; 
 And the dream that the old world dreamed 
 the ages for us prolong 
 In the sound of the wind, and the ripple of 
 waves, and the call of the sea. 
 
 Too small have we found our home? But 
 see ! though we reach the bars 
 That close the ends of the earth, what 
 wanderings wait us still : — 
 
64 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 Always a journey left to the country over 
 the hill, 
 And in every heart a pathway that reaches 
 beyond the stars. 
 
LOSS, OR GAIN? 
 
 Is then our venture all fn vain, 
 
 Since we, who were bound for Eldorado, 
 Now were happy to sail one evening 
 Into our haven-home again ? 
 
 Since we who were vowed to the unknown 
 
 quest 
 Dream but of shelter, seek but rest, 
 Ask no more than a seat at the hearth-side, 
 Out of the sea-wind, out of the rain ? 
 
 If it be ours to return one day, 
 
 How shall we greet them empty-handed ? 
 What shall we tell of the unknown country ? 
 
 F 
 
66 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 How shall we chart the unknown way ? 
 
 What will they hold the tidings worth 
 Of shoreless seas at the ends of the earth ? 
 Whose are the treasures of gold and silver, 
 
 Theirs who venture, or theirs who stay ? 
 
 They have triumphed where we have failed ; 
 They have obeyed where we revolted ; 
 Theirs the blessings of harvests tended, 
 Ours the lashings of storms out-sailed. 
 
 Content were they with their destined lot : 
 We sought a greater and found it not. 
 They bowed their necks to the yoke and 
 fattened : 
 We have wrestled with God, and God prevailed. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 Long, long ago 
 
 We looked out westward from our island 
 shores 
 Across the unknown seas. 
 Piled clouds against the twilight were the 
 doors 
 Of magic ocean-ways that washed the 
 
 quays 
 Along the glimmering Hesperides ; 
 And, over long horizons far away, 
 
 We dreamed of whispering waves and dipping 
 oars, 
 
68 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 And starry lanes and silver corridors 
 Of seas that round our Eldorado lay. 
 
 We saw the haven lights aglow 
 
 On windy evenings, and we heard the sound 
 Of sailors' voices as the anchor swung, — 
 Songs that the old sea venturers had 
 sung 
 Ere yet they knew their little earth was 
 round. 
 And every ship that stood with sails unfurled 
 Away upon her voyage, to us seemed bound 
 To shores of Eldorado still unfound, 
 To wonderlands that lie beyond our world. 
 
 Where shall we find them? we have sought 
 afar, 
 And wandered long upon the chartless main. 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 69 
 
 Here, where they should have been, they no- 
 where are : 
 There, where we saw them once, they still 
 remain. 
 And would we find them, we again must 
 
 find 
 Those paths of childhood whence, in storm 
 and wind, 
 We watched old ships at twilight cross the 
 bar, 
 And heard the sailors singing in the rain. 
 
 Not for these old illusions do we mourn — 
 Not for the Isles of the enchanted seas ; 
 
 But for the birthright lost, the joy outworn, 
 The hope unrealised, — we mourn for these. 
 We could not choose but bow to Time's 
 decrees : 
 
70 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 No taking thought can make again our 
 
 own 
 The wonder that has flown, 
 Or re-assert our heavenly destinies. 
 The wound that Time has dealt Time cannot 
 heal ; 
 But leaves us faithless where we would be- 
 lieve, 
 Makes us unravel where we fain would weave, 
 And numbs our spirits where they long to feel. 
 
 Still we sail on. The future we endow 
 
 With all we lost, and, on the ocean lone, 
 Another Eldorado seek we now : 
 
 A land wherein is nothing strange or new, 
 No dearer love, no flowers of fairer hue 
 Than once we saw but could not make our 
 own ; 
 
THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 71 
 
 Far shores where still exist 
 
 The might-have-been, the lost, the unfulfilled, 
 The work we planned but had not strength 
 to build, 
 
 The love we looked upon but somewhere missed. 
 
 We know not what far leagues of sea divide us 
 
 From that far land, or whether we shall 
 sleep 
 
 Ourselves at last beneath the lonely deep, 
 Or find some star to guide us ; — 
 Some star that haply on our childhood rose, 
 Whose light shall lead us to that evening's close 
 
 When on the darkening deck we keep once 
 more 
 Our watch, and of a sudden in the breeze 
 Find woodland scents and murmur of the trees, 
 
 And hear the sailors singing of the shore. 
 
72 THE UNDISCOVERED SHORE 
 
 Is the land near? Too oft the night has 
 blessed 
 Our "hearts with dreams for morning to 
 dispel ; 
 And dawn too often gave us hope of rest 
 And haven, lost before the evening fell. 
 Is this the land ? or but a cloud in the west ? 
 The night falls, and the watchman cries, 
 " All's well ! " 
 
A RITUAL 
 
A CONFESSION OF UNFAITH 
 Creditis — Credimus 
 
 You believe in Life Eternal, Heaven, and the 
 
 Heavenly Host. 
 You believe in God the Father, God the Son, 
 
 and Holy Ghost. 
 
 We have won no faith divine in paths of 
 
 human joy and grief; 
 We have sought for God and found not. Help, 
 
 O God, our unbelief! 
 
76 A RITUAL 
 
 You believe in One Supreme, the One in Three, 
 
 the Three in One : 
 We behold the myriad worlds, whose Gods may 
 
 countless be or none. 
 
 You believe in one Designer, Maker of the 
 
 Heaven and Earth, 
 One who from immortal blossoms shook the 
 
 golden seeds of birth. 
 
 We, a faithless generation, question, seeking for 
 
 a sign, 
 " The Creator whence created ? The Designer 
 
 whose design ? " 
 
 " Nay," you answer, " we are children, all 
 
 unskilled to read his plan ; 
 Yet from dust of earth he took us, in his 
 
 likeness made he man." 
 
A RITUAL 77 
 
 " We are dust of earth," we cry ; " and, as the 
 
 flower from the sod, 
 Dreams arise in human hearts, and in man's 
 
 likeness made he God." 
 
 You believe that all creation from the soul of 
 
 God proceeds. 
 You believe the heart of man is evil. Ask you 
 
 whence the seeds ? 
 
 You believe that we were fashioned perfect by 
 
 our God, yet fell ; 
 In his scheme for Heaven destined, by our 
 
 actions fit for Hell. 
 
 See what choice you set before us to believe 
 
 that God designed 
 Both the evil and the good, and flung the 
 
 burden on mankind ; 
 
78 A RITUAL 
 
 Or to hold that he was powerless to complete 
 
 what he began, 
 And in Earth proclaimed his failure, and his 
 
 recklessness in Man. 
 
 If you find the Father's spirit in the triumph of 
 
 the saint, 
 May we trace not also thence our sin's 
 
 hereditary taint ? 
 
 So the God who would and could not, or the 
 
 God from whom was born 
 The defect that damns his creatures, you may 
 
 worship, — we must scorn. 
 
 You believe God suffered evil, leaving open 
 
 gates of sin, 
 That his faithful in resistance might to nobler 
 
 stature win ; 
 
A RITUAL 79 
 
 And for those who were unfaithful, and 
 
 dishonoured, and undone, 
 Did he send on earth a Saviour, Jesus Christ, 
 
 his only Son. 
 
 Who became a man among us, shared the 
 
 burden of the poor, 
 And the trial of the tempted, and was faithful 
 
 to endure, 
 
 And despised and rejected by the world he 
 
 loved so well, 
 He was crucified and buried, and descended into 
 
 Hell, 
 
 And ascended into Heaven, and before the 
 
 throne above 
 Stands the advocate of man,- and holds the 
 
 open door of Love. 
 
80 A RITUAL 
 
 We revere ! The name beloved, Christ the 
 
 comrade and the friend, 
 Lights our wandering footsteps also down the 
 
 way that has no end. 
 
 Only that, while you believe he leads you to 
 
 your Heavenly rest, 
 We behold him, one beside us, toiling on the 
 
 unknown quest : 
 
 Greatest of the Love-inspired since the labouring 
 
 world began, 
 Named by man the Son of God, who knew 
 
 himself the son of Man. 
 
 You believe the trump of doom shall sound 
 and wake the dead from sleep, 
 
 Wake them to their day of judgment, — damned 
 or pardoned, goats or sheep. 
 
A RITUAL 8 1 
 
 These in bliss eternal dwelling, those in torture 
 
 wracked and wrenched, 
 Where their worm for ever dies not, and their 
 
 fire is not quenched. 
 
 Or was this dark faith your fathers'? You, 
 
 mayhap, but see them grope, 
 Exiles of forgotten Love, and derelicts of 
 
 vanished Hope. 
 
 Not for us your faith that severs friend from 
 
 friend, and mate from mate, 
 We believe that we are comrades, sharers of 
 
 one common fate. 
 
 If but half mankind be chosen, Heaven but 
 
 made for God's elect, 
 Be it ours to choose damnation with the faithless 
 
 and the wrecked. 
 
82 A RITUAL 
 
 When in lonely grief you stand beside the 
 
 grave of child or wife, 
 You foresee divine reunion, you behold not 
 
 Death but Life. 
 
 Not for you the sting of parting, you who 
 
 dream again to greet, 
 All the love your dear ones gave you, all that 
 
 made their presence sweet. 
 
 Not for you to toll above your dead the mournful 
 
 parting knell : 
 Rather peals of joy to speed them, triumph 
 
 songs of brave farewell. 
 
 Yet despite the faith that cheers you, when the 
 
 sundering hour draws nigh, 
 We have seen your hopeless anguish, we have 
 
 heard your faithless cry. 
 
A RITUAL 83 
 
 Gleams of hope may light our darkness ; dreams 
 
 may bring us back our dead, 
 Whisper the beloved accents, lift again the 
 
 golden head, — 
 
 Dreams that bring us little comfort, heavenly 
 
 promises that lapse 
 Into some remote It-may-be, into some forlorn 
 
 Perhaps. 
 
 When the voice we love is silent, when the face 
 
 we love is hid, 
 When we hear the churchyard gravel strike 
 
 against the coffin lid, 
 
 When we turn and leave our dearest, — leave - 
 them where the grave deflowers 
 
 All that made their presence lovely, would to 
 God your faith were ours ! 
 
84 A RITUAL 
 
 All your human love we share in ; you in all 
 
 our human grief: 
 Love unites us, creeds divide us. Help, O 
 
 God, our unbelief! 
 
A GENERAL CONFESSION 
 
 We, who wrought not or fought not for life, 
 
 have awakened to the light ; 
 We are raised unto honour from the dust, and 
 
 equipped for the fight ; 
 And the honour we have held as a burden, and 
 
 the gift as a right. 
 
 In the front rank of life were we stationed, — 
 
 the earth's pioneers ; 
 Earth's creatures behold us and obey, — we 
 
 have seen not our peers, 
 
86 A RITUAL 
 
 No stronger to whom we must bow ; yet we 
 cower in our fears. 
 
 We have turned us at noon from the task that 
 
 at morn we begun ; 
 We have thrown down our arms upon the field 
 
 that 'twas ours to have won ; 
 We have left undone those things that we 
 
 ought to have done. 
 
 A watch was given us on earth, an outpost to 
 
 guard ; 
 And the post we abandoned, the way to be 
 
 kept we unbarred ; 
 We have failed in the trust we were given, — 
 
 and we ask a reward. 
 
 Like weeds of the sea on the tideways of life 
 are we tossed 
 
A RITUAL 8; 
 
 'Twixt the good and the evil, 'twixt the service 
 
 divine and its cost. 
 We have erred, we have strayed from the way 
 
 like sheep that are lost. 
 
 We have laughed at the faiths and the fears of 
 
 the days left behind, 
 And have fashioned new bonds for our souls 
 
 while the old we unbind, 
 And, thinking we behold, in our blindness our 
 
 children we blind. 
 
 We are faithless of life, and in creeds our un- 
 
 faith do we hide ; 
 The world that our faith should unite with our 
 
 creeds we divide ; 
 We have said, " I believe," and we knew in our 
 
 hearts that we lied. 
 
88 A RITUAL 
 
 In God's holy Name the commandments of 
 
 Love do we break : 
 We have turned from our friend ; we have 
 
 tortured, we have burned at the stake ; 
 We have shamed God and man by the deeds 
 
 we have done for his sake. 
 
 Shall we think that the spirit shall be cleansed 
 by the lip that exalts ? 
 
 That the battle shall be won by the ranks of a 
 force when it halts, 
 
 Crying, " Spare Thou them, O God, which con- 
 fess their faults, 
 
 Restore Thou them that repent?" as slaves 
 
 might implore 
 When they look on the lash, while 'twas ours 
 
 by our deeds to restore 
 
A RITUAL 89 
 
 The cause we abandoned, and the pride of the 
 arms that we bore. 
 
 In our failure had been less dishonour had we 
 
 borne it alone ; 
 But we fashion us a creed in our fear, bidding 
 
 God to atone 
 For our shame in the cause we betray, and the 
 
 trust we disown. 
 
 And we curse God and die ; or we call on the 
 
 name of the Lord, 
 While a hope still remains to be ventured, and 
 
 a deed to record 
 In the ranks of the faithful, who fight and who 
 
 seek no reward. 
 
 The evening is near and the night wherein 
 labour can none. 
 
90 A RITUAL 
 
 We have wasted the day, we have borne not 
 
 the heat of the sun ; 
 We have left undone those things which we 
 
 ought to have done. 
 
A PSALM 
 
 Venite, gaudium canamus I 
 
 Come, sing the joy of Life ! 
 
 Leave the doubters and despairers, 
 And, among the onward-farers, 
 Take our heritage as sharers 
 
 In the wonder and the strife, 
 
 And the glory and the sin. 
 Let no creed of man divide us 
 From the friend who stands beside us ; 
 Let us seek no gods to guide us 
 
 But the Love that all may win. 
 
92 A RITUAL 
 
 The Gods are dead and gone, 
 
 As the seers of old who framed them, 
 And the golden tongues that named them, 
 And the cruel wits that maimed them ; 
 
 And behold ! we stand alone 
 
 Glad of birth, and without fear ; 
 With the same far Heaven o'er us, 
 And the unknown road before us, 
 Toil, and slumber to restore us, 
 
 Pain, and Love to give us cheer. 
 
 Seek we Earth to understand ! 
 
 Read the fruit-time and the sowing, 
 And the winds of winter blowing, 
 And the sunshine and the flowing 
 
 Of the waters in the land. 
 
 Love the heroes and their deeds ; 
 
 Stand where comrades may require us ; 
 
A RITUAL 93 
 
 Let our country's honour fire us, 
 And a woman's love inspire us ! 
 These are Faith : the rest were creeds. 
 
 If we Earth have understood, 
 
 Trusted, asking not completeness, 
 Known a comrade's help, the sweetness 
 Of a girl's love, need we witness 
 
 Beyond these that Life is good ? 
 
 Love it well ! and comes a time, 
 Though our Gods be all departed, 
 We shall find us merry-hearted, 
 Nearer Heaven than those who started, 
 
 Scorning Earth, the upward climb. 
 
A LESSON 
 
 (From the Book of Genesis) 
 
 Ere the beginning and beyond the end, 
 Whole, uncreated, in eternal change 
 Renewed, and deathless in mortality, 
 Life Is. The Heaven and Earth and all the 
 
 stars, 
 The Spheres beyond the reach of sight or 
 
 dream, 
 Are but as leaves that on the Tree of Life 
 Bud and unfold, and drop about its roots 
 To merge in verdure new ; as sentences 
 Set and re-set from one great font of type ; 
 
A RITUAL 95 
 
 As passing changes rung on changeless bells ; 
 As fountain-spray of an eternal spring 
 That, falling, feeds the sources of its leap. 
 In the beginning Heaven and Earth were made, 
 And Heaven and Earth shall also pass away. 
 Ere the beginning a.nd beyond the end 
 Life Is. And we who travel for a day 
 Along the unknown road, in wonder wait : 
 And Wisdom cries, " I know not anything ! " 
 And Faith beholds and sees that it is good. 
 
 Even as a seed that from the blossom falls 
 And lies beneath the ground and waits its time 
 In darkness, till the spring shall touch its sleep, 
 And impulses of life from which it sprung 
 Inspire its growth until at last it bear 
 A blossom like to that from which it fell, — 
 So fell, so grew, so blossomed our green Earth. 
 
96 A RITUAL 
 
 That which the Earth was once, — the shapeless 
 
 mass, 
 The chaos blind, the homeless wilderness 
 Flung into darkness, was itself the seed 
 Won from eternal harvests ; in its slime 
 And protoplasmic heavings were astir 
 Ancestral memories, immortal dreams. 
 There in the unformed was the formed ; the 
 
 lands, 
 The seas, and all that in them is were there. 
 There, in the elemental force, abode 
 The power of man who chained the elements 
 And made them serve his needs ; the art divine 
 That into marble breathes the breath of life 
 And links the centuries with song was there. 
 There was the soul of man, the good, the ill, 
 The doubt, the faith, the purpose and the 
 
 love. 
 
A RITUAL 97 
 
 There was the seed ; and, as the seed that 
 
 springs 
 To leaf and flower, in its bloom reveals 
 The bloom from which it sprung, so read we 
 
 now, 
 In life's unfoldings upon earth, the heart 
 Of life triumphant ere the world began ; 
 And know that we who come are born the heirs 
 Of pain, and hope, and strife, and love supreme, 
 That, ere they trembled through our mortal 
 
 days, 
 Were, and when man has also passed away, 
 Shall sow the unborn worlds with human 
 
 dreams. 
 
 We wake and read the earth, and learn the law 
 
 That shaped its growth : we trace the leaf and 
 
 bloom 
 
 H 
 
98 A RITUAL 
 
 Up from the bursting bud : and lo ! blind forms 
 Of being feeling toward the light, vile shapes 
 Born of abysmal throes, confusions vast 
 Of elemental strife in which the strong 
 Devoured the weak and grew, till some new age 
 Of spheric doom swung round with ice or fire 
 And slaughtered and selected, and the few 
 That bore the stress of change remained to rule 
 And multiplied, until once more appeared 
 Weaker and stronger, and the stronger rose 
 And crushed the weaker and again were 
 
 crushed ; 
 And in the end the outcome of the strife 
 Was Man, who had dominion over all 
 And preyed on all things, and the stronger man 
 Trampled his weaker brother under foot, 
 And, dominant on earth yet fearing death, 
 Made creeds to shelter him and deities 
 
A RITUAL 99 
 
 Who bore his strife to heaven, where the gods 
 Of stronger races conquered and in turn 
 Were driven forth and others ruled supreme 
 And burdened man with tasks, until at length 
 In pride or scorn he rose against his gods, 
 Which were his own desires and tyrannies 
 Unfettered, or his own ideals enthroned ; 
 And wrestling with God, the soul of man 
 Beheld itself, and saw that with itself 
 It wrestled, and that impulses divine 
 Unwakened while his coarser fibres grew, 
 Hidden within the seed from which he sprung, 
 And now in Time's inevitable hour 
 Uplifted, were astir within himself 
 And sought new light. And fighting to fulfil 
 An age-begotten fate, our human life 
 Bore, — as a woman bears her child in pain, — 
 Pity, and Love, and Justice ; and the pride 
 
ioo A RITUAL 
 
 Of leadership no longer lay in men 
 
 Who trod upon the helpless, but in men 
 
 Who fought their fight ; and those knit thews 
 
 of strength 
 Won by the earth in civil strife remained 
 To shield the awakened Love. Yet, with the 
 
 Love 
 Grew deeper sorrow, and with larger hopes 
 Larger regrets, and with the tender care 
 To shield the blossom, knowledge of the blight, 
 The canker, and the storm that threatened it 
 Beyond man's help. And still the blue of 
 
 Heaven 
 That reigns above the flower is as far 
 As that which rose above the buried seed. 
 And Love beholding Death, hides troubled eyes : 
 And Wisdom cries, " I know not anything : " 
 And only Faith beholds that all is well. 
 
A PSALM 
 
 Sit nobis templum 
 
 OURS be the church not built with hands, 
 Whose corners are the seas and lands ; 
 Whose windows are the night and day, 
 The rose of dawn, the evening gray ; 
 Whose pillars soar through azure space 
 To shadowy heights, and interlace 
 In roofs that, past the silver bars 
 Of moonlight, mingle with the stars. 
 The mountains shall our altars raise ; 
 Our cloisters hide in woodland ways ; 
 And, in the rocks, each crystal rill 
 
102 A RITUAL 
 
 Our fonts of Holy water fill. 
 Processions of the years and hours 
 Shall ever move beneath its towers ; 
 And, down its echoing aisles, shall sweep 
 Eternal anthems of the deep. 
 But gleams shall evermore be shown 
 Through distant doors, of paths unknown ; 
 And round its walls shall evermore 
 Come whispers of an unknown shore. 
 
 Be it our ritual to read 
 In Life our Faith, in Truth our Creed. 
 Let Fear its graven tables break, 
 And Love our ten commandments make. 
 Let us, when Heaven no light imparts, 
 Our gospel seek in human hearts ; 
 Our hymns of praise on children's lips ; 
 In Beauty, our Apocalypse. 
 
A RITUAL 103 
 
 And let the burdens all must bear 
 In silence, be our common prayer ; 
 Let every flower that cleaves the sod 
 Become to us a word of God ; 
 And, lifting Heavenward Life's intent, 
 Love be, itself, our Sacrament ! 
 
A SECOND LESSON 
 
 (From the Apocalypse) 
 
 A VISION held my spirit, and I saw 
 
 The Heavens opened and the Tree of Life 
 
 Enfolded by the Everlasting Hills. 
 
 And o'er the hills for ever rolled away, 
 
 And ever formed itself anew, the cloud 
 
 Whose name is Death ; and on the hills the 
 
 cloud 
 Threw down its burden, and sent forth a 
 
 stream 
 Whose waters flowed beside the Tree of Life 
 And nourished it. And over all I saw 
 
A RITUAL 105 
 
 The light whose name is Love ; and in that 
 
 light 
 The tree put forth its blossoms. Then I heard, 
 Near and yet far away, a voice that broke 
 The silence of the Everlasting Hills, — ' 
 A voice whose sound was as a passing wind 
 Amid the branches of the Tree of Life, — 
 And knew that God had spoken and that man 
 Had heard. And lo ! before mine eyes arose 
 Ages of Earth remote, and in the midst 
 Man's Soul in likeness of a warrior armed. 
 Alone he stood beside the Tree of Life, 
 And listened for the call that summoned him, 
 And lifted up his voice and cried aloud, 
 "Where are my Gods?" And through the 
 
 Tree of Life 
 There passed a mighty wind, that smote its 
 
 boughs 
 
106 A RITUAL 
 
 And struck its weaker blossoms to the ground ; 
 And to the Soul of man the Unknown spake : 
 " Look on thy Gods ! " Then all that I had 
 
 seen 
 Was hidden from my sight and in its stead 
 I saw a vanished Heaven. All was vast, 
 Dim, and phantasmal. Wilderness and vale, 
 Mountains and torrents mingled with the clouds ; 
 And o'er the wilderness there passed a sigh 
 Of myriad wings ; and Angels of the Mists, 
 And Shades of Dream, and Wisps of ancient 
 
 Fear, 
 Whispered and fled. Anon I heard the roar 
 Of battle, and the giants of the winds 
 And the old upland Gods led forth the van 
 Of elemental war against the race 
 Of younger Gods, and all the mountain paths 
 Flashed fire, and all the valleys roared in flood. 
 
A RITUAL 107 
 
 And in the warfare, standing with the old 
 Against the new, the Soul of man arose, 
 Godlike himself, astrain to prove his strength, 
 Exultant in the fray, and pitiless, 
 And unafraid and careless of the end. 
 And for a thousand years, that seemed a day, 
 Along the mountain wildernesses rolled 
 The battle, and at last the older Gods 
 Were driven forth. And afterwards I saw 
 The Soul of man alone upon a hill 
 Watching the far off citadel of Heaven 
 Called Asgard, where the rulers overthrown 
 Still lingered ; and the twilight of the Gods 
 Fell on the lonely mountain, and he cried, 
 " How may I reach the city of my Gods 
 That with them I may die?" And thus to 
 
 man 
 Spake the Eternal, " Mortal are the Gods, 
 
108 A RITUAL 
 
 But thou immortal. They have done their 
 
 part, 
 But thine is unfulfilled, and on the Earth 
 Thou must be born again ! " And so I knew 
 An age of Earth was ended, and that man 
 Had learned its lesson and had proved himself 
 In conflict, and had knit his strength and won 
 Stature and godlike scorn of death, but stood 
 Still ignorant of life, a child unskilled 
 To read Earth's deeper meaning or behold 
 His own high destiny. 
 
 A thousand years 
 Went by me and I saw the Soul of man 
 In likeness of a prophet stern and old. 
 Alone he stood beneath the Tree of Life, 
 And lifted up his voice and cried aloud, 
 " Where is my God that I may worship him ? " 
 
A RITUAL 109 
 
 And through the Tree there passed a wind that 
 
 shook 
 Music of unborn ages from its boughs, 
 And to the Soul of man the Eternal spake, 
 " Behold the Lord thy God ! " And, suddenly, 
 Another Heaven was opened and my eyes 
 Were dazzled with the light. No shadow fell, 
 No cloud was there, nor breath of wind dis- 
 turbed 
 The golden calm. A throne was set on high, 
 And round about it stood the heavenly host, — 
 Ten thousand times ten thousand, angels bright 
 With folded wings adoring, — -and they cried, 
 " Hosannah in the highest ! King of Kings ! 
 And Lord of Lords ! " Then, even at my feet, 
 Opened between me and the heavenly host 
 A bottomless abysm, whence arose 
 Voices of woe and infinite despair, 
 
no A RITUAL 
 
 And supplications vain, and shudderings 
 Of fear, and shrieks of insane blasphemies, 
 And mutterings of curses impotent. 
 Below was utter darkness, but the star 
 Called Lucifer, hung midway in the gulf 
 And shot blue rays upon its walls, and 
 
 showed 
 Creatures like men, who hung upon its crags. 
 I saw that some strove upward, inch by inch, 
 With bleeding hands that grasped at jut and 
 
 ledge, 
 But never reached the verge ; and others stood 
 Struggling together, and together fell 
 Sheer to the unknown terror, cursing God. 
 Into the pit infernal gazed man's Soul, 
 Then on the throne ; and, while he paused, 
 
 there came 
 An angel bidding him arise and join 
 
A RITUAL in 
 
 The heavenly choir : but, though he went, his 
 
 eyes 
 Were still turned backward to that gulf of 
 
 woe : — 
 And, while he sang amid the heavenly host, 
 Wild cries were ever in his ears, that marred 
 The golden concord ; and his heart was filled 
 With ancient dreams and prophecies of change, 
 And murmurs of rebellion. 
 
 And there fell 
 A change upon my vision, and I saw 
 The throne no longer nor the heavenly host, 
 But, where the golden radiance had been, 
 A desert place in which the Soul of man 
 Wandered forlorn, till in the wilderness 
 A voice unheard amid the heavenly choir 
 Fell on his ears, and the Eternal spake : — 
 
H2 ' A RITUAL^ 
 
 '' For thee is neither home nor resting-place 
 In Heaven, but on Earth remains thy part 
 Unfinished, and thy lesson still unlearned. 
 Thy destiny is greater than thy dreams, 
 Thou than thy Gods." So then I knew that 
 
 man 
 Had looked upon the evil and the good, 
 And framed the law and written the command 
 Of righteousness, forgetful of the weak, 
 And climbed towards Heaven ere yet the joy 
 
 of Earth 
 Had reached his spirit or his eyes had seen 
 Its beauty. 
 
 And there passed another age. 
 And once again I saw the Soul of man 
 Stand by the Tree of Life. A youth, he 
 seemed, 
 
A RITUAL 113 
 
 Noble of form, and on his brow he wore 
 
 A poet's laurel. And I heard him say, 
 
 " Where are the Gods whose deeds I sang on 
 
 Earth ? " 
 Then to the Soul of man the Eternal spake, 
 " Behold thy Gods ! " And suddenly I saw, 
 High throned above the plains of Thessaly, 
 Olympus. All its vast and crowning heights 
 Shone radiant ; but as waters of the sea 
 Round island shores, the billows of the clouds 
 Rolled at the foot of pinnacle and crag, 
 And swept along the curves of upland vales 
 In rippling tides of gold and foam of rose, 
 And wrought a barrier between Heaven and 
 
 Earth, 
 Watched by the Hours. Upon the higher 
 
 peaks 
 In state apart communing, were enthroned 
 
ii 4 A RITUAL 
 
 Zeus and the greater Gods ; the lesser Gods 
 Dwelt in the forests and the vales remote 
 That bordered on the wandering fields of cloud. 
 In those celestial realms I saw that care 
 Was banished and that no unlovely thing 
 Or voice unsweet might enter. Stately forms 
 Of radiant beauty trod the slopes and left 
 A path of flowers where their footsteps fell, 
 And thrilled the air with melody and touched 
 The dream of mountain echoes in their speech. 
 Here, welcomed by the Gods, the Soul of man 
 Abode content, and saw his ancient dream 
 Of beauty perfected, and learnt the songs 
 Of love and wisdom, freed from mortal bonds. 
 Yet after many days it seemed some want, 
 Some rumour of a promise unfulfilled, 
 Perplexed him ; and one night Mnemosyne 
 Came while he slept and whispered in his ear ; 
 
A RITUAL us 
 
 And when he woke he looked upon the stars 
 That shone above Olympus, and, amazed, 
 Beheld in them the same familiar stars 
 Whose light he knew on Earth, but still, 
 
 remote 
 . Nor nearer to the Heaven than the Earth. 
 Then stirred within him distant memories 
 Of woodland flowers and sunlit homes of men, 
 And paths of starry light on rippled seas. 
 And with the dawn he lifted up his voice 
 And sang, and from their thrones upon the 
 
 peaks, 
 And from the misty vales the Gods drew near 
 And listened wondering. 
 
 He sang of Earth 
 And labour, of the toil of husbandmen, 
 And rain on furrowed fields, and evening light 
 On yellow cornlands, and of haven quays 
 
n6 A RITUAL 
 
 And crowded masts, and worn sea-venturers 
 Home faring from their quests ; he sang of war, 
 The glory of the conflict and the deeds 
 Of heroes ; and of peace and hope he sang, 
 And destiny, and reverence for the Gods. 
 But sweeter rose his voice the while he sang 
 Our human bonds, the few and priceless years 
 That make man's all, of death that gives the 
 
 hours 
 Of human life a loveliness unknown 
 Among immortals, and of sorrow and strife 
 Amid whose darkness Love becomes a light 
 Unseen in Heaven. 
 
 I saw that while he sang 
 The Gods grew weary of their blessedness, 
 And one by one went forth ; and, down the 
 
 slopes^ 
 Into the clouds that girt Olympus, passed, 
 
A RITUAL n; 
 
 Seeking for earthly wars and human loves. 
 And, when his song had ceased, Man stood 
 
 alone 
 Beside the Tree of Life, and, in the breath 
 That stirred its boughs, thus heard the voice of 
 
 God:— 
 " Earth thou hast learned to love, and thou 
 
 hast read 
 Her dream of beauty, but thou hast not learnt 
 The secret of her sorrow. On the Earth 
 Again thou must be born, and thus fulfil 
 A nobler fate than falleth to thy Gods, 
 Who dwell apart from pity and from death." 
 
 Then in my vision passed a thousand years 
 That seemed but as a day, and I beheld 
 Another Heaven and another Earth. 
 And at the door of Heaven the Soul of man 
 
n8 A RITUAL 
 
 Paused, looking backward down the narrow way 
 Whereby he came. Gentle he seemed and 
 
 strong 
 And sorrowful, as one who bore the pain 
 And burden of the great world's sins and tears 
 And failures ; and forgetful of the load 
 That lay upon him, though his feet were 
 
 bruised 
 And on his brow was pressed a crown of 
 
 thorns. 
 I saw him open wide, but enter not, 
 The door of Heaven ; and through it streamed 
 
 a light 
 Whose name is Faith, that on the wilderness 
 Severing Earth and Heaven fell, and made 
 A radiance on one steep and narrow way, 
 While all around was dark. 
 
 Yet not on those 
 
A RITUAL 119 
 
 Who climbed that path and found the door of 
 
 ■ Heaven 
 Pondered the Soul of man, but on the crowds 
 That lingered on the highways of the world, 
 Glad in the sunshine, and on those who strove 
 And stumbled in the darkness, seeing not 
 The light that fell upon the narrow way. 
 And while he pondered, out of Heaven there 
 
 spake 
 A voice that bid him lay his burden down 
 And enter into rest. 
 
 Then to that call 
 I heard him answer, " Is the end fulfilled ? 
 What, then, of those who have not found the 
 
 way ? " 
 And out of Heaven again there spake a voice : 
 " The door is open and the light of Faith 
 Shines down the path for all to see who will ; 
 
120 A RITUAL 
 
 And those who turn away, loving too well 
 The lights that rule the world, must follow 
 
 these 
 Even to their setting, and with them be lost." 
 Then answered he, " Too narrow is the way, 
 Nor is there hope for man in any Faith 
 That severs race from race, and home from 
 
 home, 
 And man from wife. Till Faith and Love are 
 
 one 
 The world shall still be faithless." And again 
 The voice from Heaven called him, and he cried, 
 " I go among my brethren on the Earth 
 To share their unbelief." And down a path, 
 Rugged and dark, save that the light of Love 
 Was round his footsteps, through the wilderness 
 That severed Earth from Heaven, he went his 
 
 way. 
 
A RITUAL 121 
 
 Then in my vision passed a thousand years 
 Which seemed but as a day, and eagerly 
 I waited looking for the Soul of man 
 Once more to come, nor come as heretofore 
 A wanderer in quest of vanished dreams, 
 But confident as one who nears at last 
 His home, and glad with tidings of a Faith 
 That all the world may share. 
 
 And long it seemed 
 I waited, but he came not, and there reigned 
 A silence in the everlasting hills. 
 And through the branches of the Tree of 
 
 Life 
 There passed a wind, and once again I heard 
 The voice of the Eternal : — " Ask no more. 
 The road must ever be an unknown road 
 On which man fares, and this alone his faith, 
 To love and labour asking not the end." 
 
122 A RITUAL 
 
 So passed the voice, and once again there 
 
 reigned 
 A silence in the everlasting hills, 
 And o'er the hills for ever rolled away, 
 And ever formed itself anew, the cloud 
 Whose name is Death, and on the cloud there 
 
 fell 
 The wonder of the light whose name is Love ; 
 And stretching far away, here lost in mist, 
 Here in the light emerging, I beheld 
 The unknown road. 
 
 Then from my dream I woke. 
 And lo ! I stood in a familiar place 
 At nightfall, and around me heard again 
 Earth's woodland notes, and murmuring of the 
 
 sea 
 Borne on the south-west wind, and saw the 
 
 lights 
 
A RITUAL 123 
 
 Aglow in homely windows, and the path 
 That led me to the door of those I loved ; 
 And o'er the darkening woodland, and beyond 
 The dim horizon of the sea, arose 
 The stars that shone upon the unknown way. 
 
A PSALM 1 
 Domus nostra in profundisl 
 
 World of our wakening ! home in the depths 
 
 of the Infinite 
 Fallen to humanity ! O little sunlighted 
 
 wanderer 
 In the vast spaces unknown and eternal and 
 
 limitless ! 
 We, too, have come in our turn to behold our 
 
 inheritance. 
 So, while thou still hast pursued the old course 
 
 of thy pilgrimage, 
 
 1 Revised from verses which originally appeared in a 
 volume called A Modern Ideal, now out of print and 
 not to be republished. 
 
A RITUAL 125 
 
 Others have come and have gone — have beheld 
 
 and inherited, 
 Made of thy waters a path and a home in thy 
 
 meadowlands, 
 Gathered to toil in the dawn and to rest in the 
 
 darkening, 
 Fought and kept watch on thee. Now is the 
 
 day, soon the night cometh. 
 This is our watch, we have come to relieve the 
 
 aweary ones. 
 
 Lo ! we arise and look forth and consider our 
 
 dwelling-place : — 
 Homely and intimate round us the paths of 
 
 our wandering, 
 Leading afar till they merge in the mists of the 
 
 Infinite. 
 
126 A RITUAL 
 
 Life, the familiar, revealing through change and 
 mortality, 
 
 Tidings immortal, and under the simple and 
 visible 
 
 Ever suggesting a secret beyond that is fathom- 
 less. 
 
 Everything wondrous, suggestive, with mean- 
 ing inborn in it, 
 
 Everything stamped with the mark of eternal 
 significance. 
 
 This is our watch, we have come to relieve the 
 aweary ones, 
 
 Come to keep watch on the earth and guard 
 our inheritance, 
 
 Hold it in trust for the future, and cherish in- 
 violate 
 
 All that our fathers of old time have; won and 
 bequeathed to us. 
 
A RITUAL 12; 
 
 Present and future and past, we behold our 
 
 inheritance. 
 Into the past we return ; we can roam at our 
 
 will through it, 
 Making its moments our own : — when we see 
 
 in our wandering 
 Mortals who strive in the wars of the gods 
 
 around Ilium, — 
 Fishermen mending their nets by the borders 
 
 of Galilee, — 
 Wind-beaten mariners sailing beyond the Hes- 
 
 perides, — 
 Are we not there with them still, are they not in 
 
 the midst of us, 
 Striving, and hoping, and loving, and- sinning, 
 
 and sorrowing ? 
 Are we not venturing still on the paths they 
 
 begun for us ? 
 
128 A RITUAL 
 
 Legends of fairyland, tales of the morn of 
 humanity ; 
 
 Night on the plains of the past, and old watch- 
 fires glimmering ; 
 
 Tidings of heroes, of men at their posts dying 
 silently ; 
 
 Voices uplifted whose ring faileth not through 
 the centuries ; 
 
 Songs of the ages, the music of life and its 
 interludes, 
 
 Even the silence of sleep, and of death, and 
 forgetfulness ; 
 
 Records of faithlessness, wrong, and oppres- 
 sion, and infamy, 
 
 Weariness, suffering, ignorance, waste of 
 humanity ; 
 
 Whispers of struggles unknown, of the brave 
 and defeated ones ; 
 
A RITUAL 129 
 
 Words of the story divine, of the love and self- 
 sacrifice, 
 
 Help for the poor and oppressed, and good 
 news for the sorrowful ; 
 
 Dayspring of Liberty, age after age ever brighten- 
 ing, 
 
 Conquering darkness, as shafts of the sunrise 
 strike heavenward, 
 
 Thrown from one cloud to another. Oh, this 
 has been given us : 
 
 Even to look through the past on the life of 
 humanity, 
 
 Growing from better to better, and learn that 
 'tis well with us ; 
 
 Learn that they watched not in vain who re- 
 ceived not the recompense ; 
 
 Learn that they fought not in vain who beheld 
 not the victory ; 
 
 K 
 
130 A RITUAL 
 
 Learn that 'tis well, and the law of man's life 
 
 is development. 
 So have our forefathers watched for us, fought 
 
 for us, hoped for us, 
 Stored for us knowledge, and fashioned us arts, 
 
 and made laws for us, 
 Given their love, writ in song or engraven in 
 
 stone for us, 
 Finished their labour, and left it to us for an 
 
 heritage. 
 
 O green earth ! little heart of warm life ! little 
 wanderer 
 
 In the vast spaces unknown arid eternal and 
 fathomless ! 
 
 O little sunlighted wanderer in the wide wilder- 
 ness ! 
 
A RITUAL 131 
 
 Thou art our home ! We look round and con- 
 sider our dwelling-place ; 
 Ponder the pictures of life, and mutation, and 
 
 wakefulness, , 
 
 Gathered in one little world, the strange tidings 
 
 of destiny 
 Told by an hour of time. Of thy dust we are 
 
 fashioned, 
 Nursed in thy shelter, and no other home may 
 
 we look upon, 
 Yet there is something we miss which we 
 
 sought in thee everywhere, 
 Something we miss which we dreamed about : 
 
 thou art not all to us. 
 Deep in our souls there are whispers of voices 
 
 mysterious, 
 Promise of something unfound, of labour that 
 
 waits for us, 
 
132 A RITUAL 
 
 Shores of new life to discover, far fields to be 
 harvested, 
 
 New homes to find and to fashion, and old love 
 to take with us ; - 
 
 Making thee seem little earth, little sunlighted 
 wanderer, 
 
 Only the home of our childhood, the bond of 
 our brotherhood, 
 
 Over the threshold of which we shall pass, 
 when the night cometh, 
 
 Seeking the morning afar and our greater in- 
 heritance. 
 
 Life, the grand labour of love, never doubteth 
 
 nor tarrieth : 
 Never a cease in the heart beat, no pausing nor 
 
 wearying 
 
A RITUAL 133 
 
 Save in the spirit of man. We are filled with 
 
 the mystery, 
 Touched with the wonder of life and the mean- 
 ing in everything ; 
 Ponder the flowers of the field and consider 
 
 their loveliness ; 
 Take up the bones of the mammoth and muse 
 
 their antiquity ; 
 Feel the sweet influence reaching us out of the 
 
 Pleiades ; 
 Stand by the breaking of seas till their storm 
 
 grows a part of us ; 
 Enter the cities of man and are lost in the 
 
 multitude : 
 Lie in the meadows at noon by the side of a 
 
 rivulet, 
 Watching the stir of the ripples among the 
 
 forget-me-nots ; 
 
134 A RITUAL 
 
 Look on the earth and behold through the 
 
 length and the breadth of it, 
 Law everlasting and matter for ever obedient ; 
 Everything doing its work in its place growing 
 
 beautiful, — 
 Strength in the garment of tenderness, love 
 
 become visible ; 
 Everything holding a meaning, some secret at 
 
 heart of it, 
 Everything stamped with the mark of eternal 
 
 significance. 
 
 So we behold in the vanishing hours of 
 
 humanity 
 Homely beginnings of pathways whose ends 
 
 are invisible : 
 Labour we cannot complete, and design never 
 
 perfected ; 
 
A RITUAL 135 
 
 Purpose, and earnest resolve, and divine possi- 
 bility ; 
 
 Pride and rebellion of spirit, and honour, and 
 steadfastness ; 
 
 Strength to resist, and the power of sublime 
 disobedience, 
 
 Power to disobey law, and inherit the punish- 
 ment ; 
 
 Love for whose sake it would seem life itself 
 had been given us, 
 
 Rather than love for the life's sake ; and sorrow 
 and sacrifice, 
 
 Speaking the beauty of life in . the midst of 
 mortality. 
 
 Lo ! we are brothers, — the earth the first home 
 of our brotherhood ! 
 
136 A RITUAL 
 
 Lo ! we are pilgrims, — and this is our first day 
 
 of journeying ! 
 Learners of life, — and the earth our first school 
 
 in the universe ! 
 Lovers are we, — and the earth is our earliest 
 
 trysting place ! 
 Fighters for God, — and the earth is the first of 
 
 our battlefields ! 
 Here we are set as a watch in the world of our 
 
 wakening. 
 This is our watch : we have come to relieve the 
 
 aweary ones ! 
 We have not looked on our Captain, yet think 
 
 we shall look on him ; 
 Think he is watching himself even now in the 
 
 midst of us. 
 Danger we know there is, — ay, and a good 
 
 thing to guard from it. 
 
A RITUAL 137 
 
 What is beyond we know not; but we feel 
 
 there is victory ; 
 Know that we now can be true, and undaunted, 
 
 and resolute, 
 Keeping hearts strong against evil and warm 
 
 to each other ; 
 Who stand as a watch on the earth, on the 
 
 shores of the Infinite, 
 Waiting the time when we also shall join the 
 
 departed ones. 
 
A LITANY OF PEACE AND WAR 
 
 I 
 
 THOU, who while still the nations were unfreed, 
 Called forth our race, and in the hour of need 
 United us, and gave us strength to lead 
 
 Through paths of darkness toward the 
 rising sun ; — 
 
 Now while the cause for which our fathers died 
 Unmoves us, while we hear on every side 
 Uncertain voices, and our ranks divide, 
 
 Lead us, good Lord, and make the people 
 one ! 
 
A RITUAL 139 
 
 From creeds that sever us, from fears that 
 
 bind, 
 From promise of a goal which some may find, 
 While some are in the darkness left behind, 
 Turn us ; let all behold the light, or none ! 
 
 But, knit by burdens that we all may bear, 
 Let us behold one hope or one despair ; 
 To victory, or defeat which all may share, 
 Lead us, good Lord, and make the people 
 one ! 
 
 Guide us to read our nobler fate's command : 
 
 Still in the service of our native land 
 
 To serve the world, and in the forefront 
 
 stand 
 While there are wrongs to right or deeds 
 
 undone. 
 
140 A RITUAL 
 
 And when the enemy is at the gate, 
 Let no divided counsels in the state 
 Unnerve our strength, nor let us hesitate 
 
 To draw the sword that made our fathers 
 one. 
 
 But, when in freedom's place we set the lust 
 Of power and dominion, quick to thrust 
 The weak aside, when in a cause unjust 
 
 We draw the sword wherewith our fathers 
 won 
 
 Our ancient greatness, and the clamorous cry 
 War when there is no war, and with a lie 
 Flatter the land for which they dare not 
 
 die, — 
 Turn us, good Lord, and make the people 
 
 one! 
 
A RITUAL 141 
 
 II 
 
 From bonds of peace wherein there is no 
 
 peace, 
 From ease that sows corruption and disease, 
 From increase paid for in the soul's decrease, 
 Good Lord deliver us, and send us war ! 
 
 When turning from the paths our fathers trod, 
 Scorning their Ruler and his broken rod, 
 We set up in his place the Belly-god, 
 And hear not in the midst of civil jar 
 
 The song of freedom,— - when our nation's 
 
 creed 
 Is but the trumpet of the common greed, 
 Nor cause remains in which we dare to bleed, 
 Good Lord deliver us, and send us war ! 
 
142 A RITUAL 
 
 Thou, who didst breathe into our souls the 
 
 breath 
 Of life, send now the sword that severeth ! 
 Send battle in our midst and sudden death ; 
 Threaten our homes with ruin and unbar 
 
 The gates that hide our treasures, that our 
 
 need 
 May wake our strength, and men may rise to 
 
 lead 
 Whom we may follow, till our souls are freed 
 From shame and fear, and love that fled afar 
 
 Again may seek us, and a common foe 
 Reknit old comradeship, and common woe 
 Rebuild the common weal. Strike ! for thy 
 blow 
 Of battle heals where peace had left a scar. 
 
A RITUAL 143 
 
 Ere the doom falls and it shall be too late 
 Show us, good Lord, the foe within the gate ; 
 Show us through sacrifice our nobler fate, 
 And in the darkness of our night, a star. 
 
 But from that hour accursed when we cry 
 Peace ! when there is no peace, and with a lie 
 Flatter the land for which we dare not die, 
 Good Lord deliver us, and send us war ! 
 
 Ill 
 
 They were our best who answered to the call ; 
 They were our best who were the first to fall ; 
 Nor vainly did they die, for through us all 
 Their spirit passed, and quickened a new 
 birth. 
 
144 A RITUAL 
 
 But, that the strength they died to reunite 
 May bless the land, and that its ancient might 
 Be strong to serve as it was strong to smite, — 
 Spare us, good Lord, and send Thy peace on 
 earth ! 
 
 We have beheld how suffering and strife 
 Strike like the tempest on the tree of life, 
 How war is in Thy hand the pruning knife 
 That cuts away the branch of little worth ; 
 
 But the same blasts that strike the tree, and 
 
 doom 
 The rotten branch, shake down the tender 
 
 bloom ; 
 And Love must still keep watch beside a 
 
 tomb, 
 Until Thou send again Thy peace on earth. 
 
A RITUAL 14s 
 
 Not as the slave beneath his punishment 
 Cry we for mercy, though our strength be spent, 
 And all the land with sword and famine rent, 
 And where the harvest ripened there is 
 dearth. 
 
 For never cry of hearts too faint to dare 
 
 Yet reached Thy throne. But spare Thy 
 
 people, spare 
 The land whose sacrifice has been its prayer, 
 And send, good Lord, Thy peace again on 
 
 earth ! 
 
 Spare us that we may see, through clouds 
 
 dispelled, 
 A foe forgiven and a cause upheld, 
 That joy may ring through lands where 
 
 mourning knelled, 
 
146 A RITUAL 
 
 And homes long dark may know the sound 
 of mirth, 
 
 And that our buried enmity may sow 
 The harvest of the world, and common woe 
 Reknit the common weal of friend and foe, — 
 Spare us, good Lord, and send Thy peace 
 on earth ! 
 
AN EPISTLE TO THE LAODICEANS 
 
 LAMELY ye go on your way ! Between two 
 
 opinions ye halt, 
 Fearing to trust or deny, and making a creed 
 
 of your doubts ; 
 Seeing two pictures of life and living untrue to 
 
 them both. 
 
 Look on your pictures in turn ! Ponder this 
 reading of Life ! 
 
 A world among worlds unknown, a pause in 
 the infinite blue, 
 
148 A RITUAL 
 
 Man looking forth and around, knowing not 
 
 whence he has come 
 Nor what the beginning nor end nor intent of 
 
 the life he perceives. 
 A little while given for labour, a little while 
 
 given for love, 
 A little while given to follow the windings of 
 
 wandering ways, 
 And then the eternal farewell. Ever the ebb 
 
 and the flow, 
 Ever the growth from decay, ever the flower 
 
 from the seed, 
 Ever the change called Death ; but never 
 
 beginning nor end. 
 Nor finds he has faith in the future, who knows 
 
 that an infinite past 
 Has dealt its eternal mutations to fashion the 
 
 life he beholds. 
 
A RITUAL 149 
 
 Here happier currents may mingle, here stormier 
 forces conflict, 
 
 Here systems and worlds may blossom, here 
 regions celestial decay ; 
 
 But nought can be added or cancelled in that 
 which already is whole. 
 
 And he knows that the world shall grow old 
 and humanity fade from its face, 
 
 And its matter be moulded anew, though its 
 forces have gathered no strength ' 
 
 Nor stored any labour or truth from the boot- 
 less existence of man ; 
 
 Nor yet any ultimate good, no triumph un- 
 reached in the past 
 
 Be won by his impotent toil ; nor the death of 
 a race or a world 
 
 Uplift the Creation one step, or lighten the 
 burden of pain. 
 
ISO A RITUAL 
 
 And he seeth his hope as a lie, and the purpose 
 that speaks in his soul 
 
 As the sport of the purpose supreme, whose 
 law is the ebb and the flow ; 
 
 And the purpose attained in a life, the develop- 
 ment won in an age, 
 
 As landmarks on cliffs that shall crumble, as 
 pathways of foam on the sea. 
 
 Such is the first of your pictured, — such the 
 
 pageant of change! 
 And this is the other : — 
 
 The Earth and the 
 
 Heaven, the known and unknown ; 
 Earth in whose sheltering bosom a seed from 
 
 the flower of life 
 Fell from afar and unfolded ; — the deathless in 
 
 mortal expressed, 
 
A RITUAL is i 
 
 The vast in the finite and homely, in Time the 
 
 Eternal ; and man 
 Learning in simple beginnings the tidings of 
 
 infinite aims. 
 He sees how the light in him grew, how the 
 
 forces within him were matched 
 With forces without and prevailed, till he sprang 
 
 from the slave to the heir, 
 From the brute to the man. And he dreams : 
 
 he dreams of achievements afar, 
 Of a stake in a grander adventure, of deeds in 
 
 a mightier cause : 
 And he strives with the forces of death, with 
 
 the retrograde, blind, and corrupt, 
 And wounded and weary and doubting, still 
 
 hears in the darkness a voice 
 That bids him endure to the end : and he holds 
 
 to the good, and the wrong 
 
152 A RITUAL 
 
 Is a quickening breath, a kindling wind on the 
 
 fires of his soul, 
 And his pain a sword in his hand when cor- 
 ruption is near to the gates : 
 And suffering wakens his pity, and sacrifice 
 
 hallows his love, 
 And his loss is his gain, and the light that lifted 
 
 the man from the brute 
 The godlike reveals in the man. 
 
 Now reads he the lesson of Time, — 
 That faith in To-morrow's advance is the breath 
 
 of the life of To-day. 
 And he knows that his way is onward, his 
 
 birthright to share in the hope 
 And burden of life itself, to cherish its promise 
 
 on earth, 
 And, ever beholding the better and seeking the 
 
 greater, to serve 
 
A RITUAL iS3 
 
 A purpose unseen whose design in its glory 
 
 complete shall reveal 
 His labour engraven, his dreams interwoven, 
 
 his sorrow inwrought, 
 And fold in its rest his desire, and light with 
 
 its beauty his love. 
 
 These, O Laodiceans, these are the pictures 
 
 you make ! 
 These your readings of life, — these twain ; and 
 
 doubting you stand 
 Fearing between them to choose, and living 
 
 untrue to them both. 
 
 If in the first is the truth, why should a flatter 
 ing dream 
 
1 54 A RITUAL 
 
 Hold you in servitude ? Can you not look on 
 
 your fate unafraid ? 
 Knowing your now is your all and sure that 
 
 no purpose unseen 
 Is served by your labour, no treasure eternal 
 
 laid up in your love, 
 Why should you palter with Heaven ? Were 
 
 it not wise to secure 
 Treasure on earth? And why should to- 
 morrow's advance 
 Darken the light of your day? Yours is the 
 
 Here and the Now : 
 Yours to fulfil the desires whose fountains are 
 
 fed from the earth : 
 Yours to unfold in your season as flowers that 
 
 win from the light 
 The beauty of vanishing moments, and even as 
 
 flowers to die. 
 
A RITUAL 1 55 
 
 So were you true to yourselves, and true to 
 
 that picture of life 
 That offers no other reward than a share of 
 
 the joy and the pain, 
 A gleam of the beauty, a dream of the wonder, 
 
 and rest at the end. 
 So were you worthy of life : but if, having 
 
 looked upon truth, 
 You cling to a flattering dream, you stand as 
 
 fools in your shame ; 
 And, claiming the Kingdom of Heaven and life 
 
 everlasting, are made 
 The sport of decay, as the king who heard the 
 
 voice of the crowd 
 Name him immortal, a god, while the worms 
 
 were at work in his heart. 
 
 But no, O Laodiceans ! this contenteth you not. 
 
156 A RITUAL 
 
 Hope of a loftier fate than to live as the flowers 
 
 of the field 
 And even as the flowers to die, hides in your 
 
 spirit's unrest ; 
 And voices call from afar, the voices of love 
 
 that you missed, 
 Of dreams earth never fulfils. So once again 
 
 do you turn 
 And look at your other picture. Gladly? 
 
 Eagerly ? Nay ! 
 Are your possessions on earth so great that ye 
 
 faltering stand, 
 Sad at the price to be paid by him who seeketh 
 
 his own 
 Beyond the horizons of time. If it be man's 
 
 to serve 
 A Purpose unseen, whose design in its glory 
 
 complete shall reveal 
 
A RITUAL 157 
 
 His labour engraven, his dreams interwoven, 
 
 his sorrow inwrought, — 
 If in the Infinite Aim your vanishing moments 
 
 are stored, 
 And folded for ever the hope that you lost and 
 
 the love that you missed, 
 What have the treasures of Time to measure 
 
 with these ? and you ! 
 Born to a fate sublime, made one with a 
 
 Purpose Supreme, 
 Heirs of the infinite joy, of the measureless 
 
 kingdoms of life, — 
 You should arise in your strength, and shout 
 
 in your gladness, and sing 
 The glory of life and death, the glory of Earth 
 
 . and Heaven, 
 The glory of God and man. But no ! Your 
 
 voices are mute ; 
 
158 A RITUAL 
 
 Ye are neither hot nor cold. Between two 
 
 opinions ye halt, 
 Fearing to trust or deny, and making a creed 
 
 of your doubts ; 
 Seeing two pictures of life and living untrue to 
 
 them both. 
 
A HYMN 
 
 Nonpreces nobis communes 
 
 Though we have found no common 
 
 prayer, 
 Nor creed that all the world may share, 
 The joy of Earth unites our days 
 And wins from man one voice of praise. 
 For, from the very life of things, 
 A constant fount of gladness springs ; 
 A beauty, making all the Earth 
 One heart in joy, one song in mirth, — 
 One voice that o'er our severed aims 
 Our faith in Life itself proclaims, 
 
160 A RITUAL 
 
 No fear of Death can cloud our fate 
 Save when we seek to separate 
 From Life our lives, and stand alone 
 In self fulfilled, as seed unsown. 
 No fear of Death is ours who know 
 That in the very life we sow 
 We are, and in the links we bind 
 With other life our own we find. 
 
 In sharing life 'tis ours to live : 
 
 Our immortality abides 
 
 Beyond the gates of self, and hides 
 Our treasure in the thing we give. 
 And, from our tribute service won, 
 
 The hidden springs of life are fed ; 
 
 And, through our joy, its fountain- 
 head 
 Sings in the rills that overrun. 
 
A RITUAL 161 
 
 Life, in eternal youth renewed, 
 
 Unfolds, and is itself the good. 
 
 Its waters sink to reappear, 
 
 Filtered through Time, in fountains clear ; 
 
 Free from the former wrong or stain 
 
 Its flowers, its worlds, are born again. 
 
 And never jar of fear or wrong 
 
 Can touch the gladness of its song ; 
 
 Nor death deface, nor envy steal 
 
 One dewdrop from its commonweal ; 
 
 Nor dim its beauty, nor undo 
 
 Its rose of morn, its noonday blue. 
 
 Life hides no secret, gives no key, 
 But bids us in its labours share. 
 Enough, that life is everywhere, 
 
 Enough, that part of it are we. 
 
 Enough, that everywhere we read 
 
 M 
 
. 162 A RITUAL 
 
 The sower's joy, the quickening fire, 
 That kindles in to-day's desire 
 To-morrow's birth. The unknown seed 
 Here grows to blossoms in the sun, 
 And here to man ; and in them both 
 The founts of Love are springs of growth, 
 And in their gladness^ they are one. 
 
A CONFESSION OF HOPE 
 
 Finis adest vitae : lacrimae mortalibus 
 
 Mortals with our moments numbered, captives 
 
 with our confines set, — 
 We, whose children shall forget us, as our 
 
 fathers we forget ; — 
 
 We, Earth's chance-begotten creatures, grasping 
 
 all that Earth can give, 
 Bondsmen of our fears and hungers, fighting for 
 
 our right to live ; — 
 
1 64 A RITUAL 
 
 We, who die, have dreams immortal, through 
 
 our passing souls vibrate 
 Passions older than the stars, and instincts of 
 
 eternal fate ; — 
 
 We, who cannot comprehend, have god-like 
 
 vision to behold 
 Paths that we may never enter, secrets that to 
 
 none are told. 
 
 Ours to read Earth's simple lessons ! When on 
 
 wings of thought our flight 
 Traverses the starry pathways, sweeps un- 
 
 fathomed voids of night, 
 
 Enters realms of new creation, leaves their 
 fading gleams behind, 
 
 Lost in undimensioned spaces, — when un- 
 bounded, undefined, 
 
A RITUAL 165 
 
 Other vistas, farther deeps, beyond our weary 
 
 flight extend, — 
 Each horizon a beginning, every path without 
 
 an end, — 
 
 When, o'erawed and wonder-stricken, from that 
 
 vastness we recoil, 
 Glad of narrow homely confines, glad of human 
 
 love and toil, — 
 
 Be our faith in Earth our mother ! Earth that 
 
 tempers to our need 
 Forces of unfathomed Being, light too strong 
 
 for us to read, 
 
 Lifting, — as she puts forth flowers that win 
 
 their colour from the sun, — 
 Life within to life beyond her. Be our faith 
 
 that both are one ! 
 
1 66 A RITUAL 
 
 Onward, and for ever onward, past our day of 
 
 Love and Strife, 
 Seasons of unending progress dawn through 
 
 everlasting Life. 
 
 Backward through eternal ages, all we hope of 
 
 the unseen, 
 All the progress of the future, all that is to be, 
 
 has been. 
 
 Ere we come, to-morrow waits us ; — when we 
 
 see its light no more 
 Yesterday abides for ever, neither after nor 
 
 before. 
 
 Hope we of a timeless morrow life from death 
 
 and change unyoked ? 
 Lo ! a yesterday eternal shaped the law we ask 
 
 revoked. 
 
A RITUAL 167 
 
 Hold we that eternal life shall make complete 
 
 what now we miss ? 
 Lo ! its work is done already. Life eternal 
 
 fashioned this. 
 
 Therefore let immortal visions flatter not with 
 
 hope sublime 
 Those who find the harvest barren, reaping in 
 
 the fields of time. 
 
 Ours to cherish mortal blossoms, ours a dying 
 
 flame to tend, 
 Ours to build the wall that crumbles, ours to 
 
 tread the paths that end ; — 
 
 Happy that in homely confines, sheltered from 
 the vast and strange, 
 
1 68 A RITUAL 
 
 Change and Death have made us comrades : 
 Be our faith in Death and Change ! 
 
 Love that makes divine the human, deeds that 
 
 else were left undone, 
 Life inspires when Death confronts it. Be our 
 
 faith that both are one ! 
 
 Still our questions are unanswered, still we seek 
 
 at eventide 
 Secrets that the morning promised, dreams that 
 
 in the noonday hide. 
 
 We who scorned the Heaven we saw not : you 
 who scorned the Earth you trod, — 
 
 Have we found on Earth our kingdom ? Are 
 you nearer to your God ? 
 
A RITUAL 169 
 
 Still above your path the heavens shine remote 
 
 as over ours ; 
 Still Life's undeciphered meaning haunts us in 
 
 the wayside flowers. 
 
 What has all our seeking taught us ? What 
 
 has been revealed to you, 
 Save a purpose ever hidden, save an ever broken 
 
 clue? 
 
 Let us turn from the unfathomed. Let a faith 
 
 that all may share 
 Penetrate our common labours. Is not Life 
 
 itself our care ? 
 
 'Twixt the mortal and immortal, Earth, our 
 
 mother, is the bond ; 
 Striving upward wrought she man, but leaves 
 
 to him the step beyond. 
 
170 A RITUAL 
 
 Where she trusted shall we falter ? Where she 
 
 hoped shall we despair ? 
 Are we not to-morrow's keepers ? Is not Life 
 
 itself our care ? 
 
 Peradventure greater issues, grander ends than 
 
 we can guess 
 Fall to ruins in our failure, stand complete in 
 
 our success. 
 
 Ay ! though no divine fulfilment wait the 
 
 labours we begin, 
 Ours be still the great adventure : — fighting, let 
 
 us fight to win ! 
 
 i 
 Be our faith in one another ! Something nobler 
 
 than our best 
 
 Wakens in the trust of comrades, dawns on the 
 
 united quest. 
 
A RITUAL 171 
 
 Be it ours to stand together ! ay, though by 
 
 another name 
 We may call the God who leads you, is our 
 
 pathway not the same ? 
 
 Through our day of strife and labour, toward 
 the night when work can none, 
 
 God be with you ! Love be near us ! Be our 
 faith that both are one ! 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed iy R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh