300. The Seeker

I SAT me down and looked around

The little lamp-lit room, and saw

Where many pictures gloomed and frowned

In sad, still life, nor made a sound—

A many for one to draw:

Shadow and sea and ground

Held by the artist’s law,

Beauty without a flaw,

All with a sense profound.

One teeming brain was wood and hill,

And sloping pastures wide and green,

And cool, deep seas where rivers spill

The snows of mountains far and chill,

Sad pools where the shadows lean.

Old trees that hang so still.

Fields which the reapers glean.

Plains where the wind is keen.

Each with a nerve to thrill.

Elusive figures swayed and yearned

By lake and misty greenwood dim,

Seeking in sorrow: they had learned

In one night’s dream might be discerned,

A pace from the world’s rim,

Wages their woe had earned,

Rest from the labour grim,

God and the peace of Him—

These in a frame interned.

On through the forest, one step on,

One step, O Powers, let me attain

This hard, dead step, let me be gone

Back where I and the morning shone,

Back ere the dream shall wane

When I and a star were one.

Seen through the veils of pain

Glory shall shine again:

God, has the vision gone?