Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
Brahma
By AnonymousI
And God himself dwells here, unseen, with me!
He is embodied in the meanest clod,
And he exists in every stone and tree.
For chance first framed and still creation sways:
I am the chance he worships in his thought,
And I am all to which he homage pays.
So do I change my ever-changing form;
I am fair virtue, I am hideous vice,
I am the sunshine and the raging storm.
Are near, for I am earth, air, water, fire;
The life of man is but a “fitful dream,”
And all created things to me aspire.
With which they vainly think from me to flee,—
Dispel illusions! seek me as you ought!
Say “I am Brahma”—in thyself find me.
Whence both the known and unknown have their start,
And I am God, for God is but the whole,
Of which all souls form each an equal part.