WE read together, reading the same book, Our heads bent forward in a half embrace, So that each shade that either spirit took Was straight reflected in the other's face: We read, not silent, nor alound, -- but each Followed the eye that past the page along, With a low murmuring sound that was not speech, Yet with so much monotony, In its half-slumbering harmony, You might not call it song; More like a bee, that in the noon rejoices, Than any customed mood of human voices. Then if some wayward or disputed sense Made cease awhile that music, and brought on A strife of gracious-worded difference, Too light to hurt our soul's dear unison, We had experience of a blissful state, In which our powers of thought stood separate, Each in its own high freedom, set apart, But both close folded in one loving heart; So that we seemed, without conceit, to be Both one and two in our identity. We prayed together, praying the same prayer, But each that prayed did seem to be alone, And saw the other, in a golden air Poised far away, beneath a vacant throne, Beckoning the kneeler to arise and sit Within the glory which encompassed it: And when obeyed, the Vision stood beside, And led the way through the upper hyaline, Smiling in beauty tenfold glorified, Which, while on earth, had seemed enough divine, The beauty of the Spirit-Bride, Who guided the rapt Florentine. The depth of human reason must become As deep as is the holy human heart, Ere aught in written phrases can impart The might and meaning of that extasy To those low souls, who hold the mystery Of the unseen universe for dark and dumb. But we were mortal still, and when again We raised our bended knees, I do not say That our descending spirits felt no pain To meet the dimness of an earthly day; Yet not as those disheartened, and the more Debased, the higher that they rose before, But, from the exaltation of that hour, Out of God's choicest treasury, bringing down New virtue to sustain all ill, -- new power To braid Life's thorns into a regal crown, We past into the outer world, to prove The strength miraculous of united Love. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: ADDRESSED TO HAYDON (2) by JOHN KEATS FARRAGUT by WILLIAM TUCKEY MEREDITH TO THE UNKNOWN EROS: BOOK 1: 8. DEPARTURE by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE ON KEATS, WHO DESIRED THAT ON HIS TOMB SHOULD BE INSCRIBED: by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY PILGRIMAGE by ELIZABETH WILCOX BEASLEY IN HADES by ANNA CALLENDER BRACKETT |