Within and over and around This dancing swirl of human sound Are tones that we can never hear With our dull range of mortal ear. Amid, encircling, and above The sights we loathe, the scenes we love, Sunbeams of dearest beauty die In darkness on our sluggish eye. Into that sound was rapt the Word The common people gladly heard; Into that light, from mortal view The Light of all the world withdrew. Some day will crash, on land and sea, The parting clouds of mystery; Some day a mighty light be lit, Disclosure of the Infinite. Then, flashing on new ears and eyes, The sights and sounds of paradise Will come, exalting in their train The Man of Nazareth again. For that great day we fashion here The heart and hand, the eye and ear. Within these clay-bound bodies grow The bodies heaven or hell shall know. May I my lasting casement find Not halt or crippled, deaf or blind, But meet for all that heaven is, A perfect cup for perfect bliss! Within these hands, outstretched to aid, Be hands of power and beauty made; Within these feet that Christ's ways go, May feet swift-winged for heaven grow; Be ears, with loving listening warmed, To angel-hearing ears transformed, While looks of human sympathy Form eyes for all eternity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHAT WE SAID THE LIGHT SAID by JAMES GALVIN REPULSE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SPRINGTIME by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DE LITTLE PICKANINNY'S GONE TO SLEEP by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: EDITH CONANT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |