Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.
Dora Sigerson Shorter (18661918)297. I am the World
I
I am the sun;
I am the dawn, the day, the hiding shroud,
When dusk is done.
The flower uncurled;
I am the melancholy of the sea;
I am the world.
Each in his groove;
Outstretching hands that chain me and embrace,
Speak and reprove.
Is poised and whirled;
Behold! you hurrying with the crowd assert
You are the world.’
Warm in the sun?
All that my ears can hear, or eyes can see,
Till all be done.
Of bud uncurled:
With all the senses pulsing at my heart,
I am the world.
I shall not hear:
Nor shall the rosy shoots to eyes grown blind
Again appear.
From off my soul
The withered world with all its joy and woe,
That was my goal.
Slip from my place;
So lingering see the old world from afar
Revolve in space.
Till all be done;
Till One shall come who, breathing on the stars,
Blows out the sun.