252. The Morality of the Lost Word

WITH a measure of light and a measure of shade,

The world of old by the Word was made;

By the shade and light was the Word conceal’d,

And the Word in flesh to the world reveal’d

Is by outward sense and its forms obscured;

The spirit within is the long lost Word,

Besought by the world of the soul in pain

Through a world of words which are void and vain.

O never while shadow and light are blended

Shall the world’s Word-Quest or its woe be ended,

And never the world of its wounds made whole

Till the Word made flesh be the Word made soul!