Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826–1887)

141. The Human Temple

DARKNESS broods upon the temple,

Glooms along the lonely aisles,

Fills up all the orient window,

Whence, like little children’s wiles,

Shadows—purple, azure, golden—

Broke upon the floor in smiles.

From the great heart of the organ

Bursts no voice of chant or psalm;

All the air, by music-pulses

Stirred no more, is deathly calm;

And no precious incense rising,

Falls, like good men’s prayer, in balm.

Not a sound of living footstep

Echoes on the marble floor;

Not a sigh of stranger passing

Pierces through the closèd door;

Quenched the light upon the altar:

Where the priest stood, none stands more.

Lord, why hast Thou left Thy temple

Scorned of man, disowned by Thee!

Rather let Thy right hand crush it,

None its desolation see!

List—‘He who the temple builded

Doth His will there. Let it be!’

Lo, a light within the temple!

Whence it cometh no man knows;

Barred the doors: the night-black windows

Stand apart in solemn rows,

All without seems gloom eternal,

Yet the glimmer comes and goes—

As if silent-footed angels

Through the dim aisles wandered fair,

Only traced amid the darkness,

By the glory in their hair,

Till at the forsaken altar

They all met, and praised God there.

Now the light grows—fuller, clearer;

Hark, the organ ’gins to sound.

Faint, like broken spirit crying

Unto Heaven from the ground;

While the chorus of the angels

Mingles everywhere around.

See, the altar shines all radiant,

Though no mortal priest there stands,

And no earthly congregation

Worships with uplifted hands:

Yet they gather, slow and saintly,

In innumerable bands.

And the chant celestial rises

Where the human prayers have ceased:

No tear-sacrifice is offered,

For all anguish is appeased,

Through its night of desolation,

To His temple comes the Priest.