Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.
Frederic William Henry Myers (18431901)180. From Saint Paul
L
Lovely and eager when the earth was young,
Burning to hurl his heart into a paean,
Praise of the hero from whose loins he sprung;—
Wandered disconsolate and waited long,
Smiting his breast, wherein the notes would tarry,
Chiding the slumber of the seed of song:
Airy and excellent the proëm came,
Rending his bosom, for a god was in it,
Waking the seed, for it had burst in flame.
I who have talked with Him forget again,
Yes, many days with sobs and with desiring
Offer to God a patience and a pain;
Then thro’ the pang and passion of my prayer,
Leaps with a start the shock of his possession,
Thrills me and touches, and the Lord is there.
Mene and mene in the folds of flame,
Think you could any memories thereafter
Wholly retrace the couplet as it came?
Sang to the earth the secret of a star,
Scarce could ye catch, for terror and for wonder,
Shreds of the story that was pealed so far:—
Hardly I hear Him, dimly understand,
Only the Power that is within me pealing
Lives on my lips and beckons to my hand.
Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny:
Yea with one voice, O world, tho’ thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.
Pours in the rain and rushes from the sod,
Rather than he for whom the great conceiving
Stirs in his soul to quicken into God.
Blind and tormented, maddened and alone,
Even on the cross would he maintain his story,
Yes and in hell would whisper, I have known.