LORD GOD, I saw thee then; one mind last night, Met thee upon thy ways. I was upon a hill, alone; My drudgèd sense was aching in amaze: Into my thought had too much gone The inconceivable room of the blue night,— The blue that seems so near to be Appearance of divinity,— And the continual stars. I was afraid at so much permanence, And was in trouble with vastness and fixt law. All round about I saw The law's unalterable fence, And like forgery of shining bars The stresses of the suns were there, Keeping, in vastness prisoner, My thought caged from infinity. And then, suddenly,— While perhaps twice my heart was dutiful To send my blood upon its little race,— I was exalted above surety And out of time did fall. As from a slander that did long distress, A sudden justice vindicated me From the customary wrong of Great and Small I stood outside the burning rims of place, Outside that corner, consciousness. Then was I not in the midst of thee Lord God? A momentary gust Of power, a swift dismay Putting the infinite quiet to disarray, A thing like anger or outbreaking lust, A zeal immeasurably sent,— So Law came and went, And smote into a bright astonishment Of stars the season of eternity, And grazed the darkness into glowing lanes. Swiftly that errand of God's vehemence, The passion which was Law, slid by, Carrying surge of creatures, fiery manes Of matter and the worldly foam And riddles of transgressing flame; So the Law's kindled shakings came A moment, and went utterly. And seemed to be no more Than if through the eternal corridor Of emptiness a sob did roam, Or a cry out of a fearful ecstasy. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EROS TURANNOS by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 59. AL-MUBDI by EDWIN ARNOLD A MORNING AFTER MOURNING by WILLIAM BASSE CAPTAIN BING by LYMAN FRANK BAUM THE HAWAIIAN FLIGHT SQUADRON by CHARLOTTE LOUISE BERTLESEN LADY OF MYSTERY by G. W. BLOEMENDAL OUT OF DARKNESS by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE |