379. To a Buddha seated on a Lotus

LORD BUDDHA, on thy lotus-throne,

With praying eyes and hands elate,

What mystic rapture dost thou own,

Immutable and ultimate?

What peace, unravished of our ken,

Annihilate from the world of men?

The wind of change for ever blows

Across the tumult of our way,

To-morrow’s unborn griefs depose

The sorrows of our yesterday.

Dream yields to dream, strife follows strife,

And Death unweaves the webs of Life.

For us the travail and the heat,

The broken secrets of our pride,

The strenuous lessons of defeat,

The flower deferred, the fruit denied;

But not the peace, supremely won,

Lord Buddha, of thy Lotus-throne.

With futile hands we seek to gain

Our inaccessible desire,

Diviner summits to attain,

With faith that sinks and feet that tire

But nought shall conquer or control

The heavenward hunger of our soul.

The end, elusive and afar,

Still lures us with its beckoning flight,

And all our mortal moments are

A session of the Infinite.

How shall we reach the great, unknown

Nirvana of thy Lotus-throne?