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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse  »  Index of First Lines

Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.

Index of First Lines

A double debt he has to pay
A flame in my heart is kindled by the might of the morn’s pure breath
Again that Voice, which on my listening ears
A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Age cannot reach me where the veils of God
Ah, Christ, it were enough to know
Ah! Nature, would that I before I pass
All are but parts of one stupendous whole
All around him Patmos lies
All living creatures’ pain
All night by the shore
All things are full of God. Thus spoke
All things once are things for ever
All that began with God, in God must end
All that is broken shall be mended
Alpha and Omega, God alone
Amid the eternal silences
And did those feet in ancient time
And while they talked and talked, and while they sat
And will they cast the altars down
A new world did Columbus find?
Apart, immutable, unseen
A pious friend one day of Rabia asked
A shape, like folded light, embodied air
As Christ the Lord was passing by
As the slow Evening gather’d in her grey
At intervals of tunes
At night in each other’s arms
A voice in the dark imploring
Backward!—beyond this momentary woe!
Batter my heart, three person’d God; for, you
Before me grew the human soul
Behind the orient darkness of thine eyes
Beneath this world of stars and flowers
Betwixt the dawning and the day it came
Beyond; beyond; and yet again beyond!
Blow gently over my garden
Bright Queen of Heaven! Gods Virgin Spouse
But she, the wan sweet maiden, shore away
But so deep the wild-bee hummeth
By one great Heart the Universe is stirred
By one pervading spirit
By those heights we dare to dare
Calm soul of all things! make it mine
Chanting the square deific, out of the One advancing, out of the sides
Christ, as a light
Come, dear Heart!
Come down, O Christ, and help me! reach thy hand
Come, Hesper, and ye Gods of mountain waters
Comest Thou peaceably, O Lord?
Consider the sea’s listless chime
Could my heart but see Creation as God sees it,—from within
Creation’s and Creator’s crowning good
Darkness broods upon the temple
Dead? Not to thee, thou keen watcher,—not silent, not viewless, to thee
Dear and fair as Earth may be
Dear friend, far off, my lost desire
Deep on the convent-roof the snows
Each wave that breaks upon the strand
Elder father, though thine eyes
Elected Silence, sing to me
En Soph, uncomprehended in the thought
Ere aught began
Even as a bird sprays many-coloured fires
Ev’n like two little bank-dividing brooks
False life! a foil and no more, when
Far in the Heavens my God retires
Far off, most secret, and inviolate Rose
Fate, which foresaw
Flight is but preparative. The sight
Flower in the crannied wall
For I have learned
For years I sought the Many in the One
Fountain of Fire whom all divide
Friends and loves we have none, nor wealth nor blessed abode
From age to age in the public place
From the Silence of Time, Time’s Silence borrow
From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines
From twig to twig the spider weaves
From what meek jewel seed
Give reverence, O man, to mystery
God, God!
God is the sole and self-subsistent one
God was, alone in unity. He willed
God, who made man out of dust
Good Friday in my heart! Fear and affright!
Grand is the leisure of the earth
Grand is the seen, the light, to me—grand are the sky and stars
Grow old along with me!
Hail, sacred Order of eternal Truth!
Hallowed be Thy name—Halleluiah!
Happy those early dayes! when I
He is made one with Nature: there is heard
Hearken, oh hearken! let your souls behind you
Hear now, O Soul, the last command of all
Hemmed in by petty thoughts and petty things
Here kneels my word, that may not say
Here on this little bridge in this warm day
Here, Pan, on grey rock slab we set for Thee
Her feet are set in darkness—at Her feet
He stood there. Like the smoke
He who knows Love—becomes Love, and his eyes
High stretched upon the swinging yard
His wide Hands fashioned us white grains and red
How like an Angel came I down!
How shall I find Him, who can be my guide?
I am beloved of the Prince of the garden of pleasure
I am that which began
I am the God of the sensuous fire
I am the Reaper
I am the song, that rests upon the cloud
I am the spirit of all that lives
I am the wind which breathes upon the sea
I begin through the grass once again to be bound to the Lord
I came into the world for love of Thee
I come in the little things
I did not think, I did not strive
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days
I found full many a hindrance on the road
I found Thee in my heart, O Lord
If there had anywhere appeared in space
If the red slayer think he slays
If thou would’st hear the Nameless, and wilt dive
I Give you the end of a golden string
I got me flowers to straw Thy way
I had no God but these
I have gone the whole round of Creation: I saw and I spoke!
I know ’tis but a loom of land
I like a church; I like a cowl
I missed him when the sun began to bend
In childhood’s pride I said to Thee
In strenuous hope I wrought
In the light of the silent stars that shine on the struggling sea
In the secret Valley of Silence
In the vaile of restles mynd
In what torne ship soever I embarke
In Youth, when through our veins runs fast
I pass the vale. I breast the steep
I paused beside the cabin door and saw the King of Kings at play
I sat me down and looked around
I saw Eternity the other night
I saw the Son of God go by
I saw the Sun at midnight, rising red
I see his blood upon the rose
I sing the Name which None can say
Is it the moved air or the moving sound
Is not the work done? Nay, for still the Scars
I spin, I spin, around, around
I stood among the ancient hills
I struck the board, and cry’d, No more
I think that in the savour of some flowers
It lies not on the sunlit hill
I was not with the rest at play
I will arise and to my Father go
I wish a greater knowledge, then t’attaine
I’ woman, am that wonder-breathing rose
King’s Daughter!
Lay me to sleep in sheltering flame
Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom
Leave, leave, thy gadding thoughts
Leave the romance before the end
Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this
Let me come nearer Thee
Lies yet a well of wonder
Life of my life! soul of my inmost soul!
Lift up your heads, gates of my heart, unfold
Lift up your hearts!’ The holy dews
Like a tired lover I rest on her bosom
Like soundless summer lightning seen afar
Lo as some bard on isles of the Aegean
Lo here a little volume, but great Book
Lo, in the sanctuaried East
Lo! in the vigils of the night, ere sped
Look, O blinded eyes and burning
Lord Buddha, on thy lotus-throne
Lord, I have knelt and tried to pray to-night
Lord of the grass and hill
Lord, said a flying fish
Lord, Thou art mine, and I am Thine
Lord, when the sense of thy sweet grace
Loud mockers in the roaring street
Love came to crave sweet love, if love might be
Love, flooding all the creeks of my dry soul
Love, thou art Absolute sole lord
Luf es lyf pat lastes ay, par it in Criste es feste
Mariner, what of the deep?
Me Lord? can’st thou mispend
Men say the world is full of fear and hate
Mortals, that behold a Woman
My contemplation dazzles in the End
My genial spirits fail
My God, I heard this day
My good blade carves the casques of men
My heart did heave, and there came forth O God!
My Lord, my Love! in pleasant pain
My naked simple Life was I
My sorrow had pierced me through; it throbbed in my heart like a thorn
My soul is like a fencèd tower
My Spectre around me night and day
No coward soul is mine
Not alone in Palestine those blessed Feet have trod
Not made with hands, its walls began to climb
Now God forbid that Faith be blind assent
O beat and pause that count the life of man
O captain of the wars, whence won Ye so great scars?
O chantry of the Cherubim
O’er boundless fields of night, lo, near and far
Of all great Nature’s tones that sweep
O gain that lurk’st ungainèd in all gain!
O God, where does this tend—these struggling aims?
Oh, fair immaculate rose of the world, rose of my dream, my Rose!
Oh! little blade of grass
Oh, tempt me not! I love too well this snare
Oh, there are moments in man’s mortal years
Oh where the immortal and the mortal meet
O joyes! Infinite sweetnes! with what flowres
O life! what letts thee from a quicke decease?
O little lark, you need not fly
O lord, the Giver of my days
Om, Amitaya! measure not with words
O martyred Spirit of this helpless Whole
O me, man of slack faith so long
On a rusty iron throne
Once, long before the birth of time, a storm
Once when my heart was passion-free
O nectar! O delicious stream!
One of the crowd went up
One thing in all things have I seen
Only to be twin elements of joy
On the Heights of Great Endeavour
O power to whom this earthly clime
O somewhere, somewhere, God unknown
O thou mysterious One, lying asleep
O thou not made with hands
O thou that movest all, O Power
O tree of life, blissful tree
Our seer, the net-mender
Out of the depths of the Infinite Being eternal
Out of the seething cauldron of my woes
O vast Rondure, swimming in space
Over the great city
O what am I that the cold wind affrays
O world invisible, we view thee
O world, thou choosest not the better part!
O yeares! and Age! Farewell
Pilate and Caïaphas
Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
See how the orient dew
She moves in tumult; round her lies
Silent is the house: all are laid asleep
Sleep sleep old Sun, thou canst not have repast
Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide
Snowflakes downfloating from the void
Some folk as can afford
Some thank Thee that they ne’er were so forsaken
Sometimes, as in the summer fields
Sometimes, I know not why, nor how, nor whence
So thin a veil divides
Souls there be to whom ’tis given
Spirit! that dwellest where
Stars in the heavens turn
Still as great waters lying in the West
Still deep into the West I gazed; the light
Strange, all-absorbing Love, who gatherest
Strangely, strangely, Lord, this morning
Such was the Boy—but for the growing Youth
Summer, and noon, and a splendour of silence, felt
Sunshine let it be or frost
Sure Man was born to meditate on things
Sweetest Saviour, if my soul
Sweet Infancy!
Swirl of the river aflow to the sea
Teach me, my God and King
Tell us, tell us, holy shepherds
That all things should be mine
The altar tiles are under her feet
The awful shadow of some unseen Power
The angells’ eyes, whome veyles cannot deceive
The body is not bounded by its skin
The buried statue through the marble gleams
The city quakes, the earth is filled with blood
The desire of love, Joy
The Knowledge of God is the wisdom of man
The Lion, he prowleth far and near
The Lord of all, himself through all diffus’d
The Maiden caught me in the wild
The man that hath great griefs I pity not
The Master said
The Master stood upon the mount, and taught
The Mother sent me on the holy quest
Then came Sir Joseph, hight, of Arimathèe
The peaks, and the starlit skies, the deeps of the fathomless seas
There are who, when the bat on wing transverse
There came one day a leper to my door
There is a flame within me that has stood
There is a glory in the apple boughs
There is a rapture that my soul desires
There is one Mind, one omnipresent Mind
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream
There were no shadows till the worlds were made
The Secret of the World is lowly
These Houres, and that which hovers o’re my End
The Self is Peace; that Self am I
The spirit grows the form for self-expression
The sun descending in the west
The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains
The Vision of Christ that thou dost see
The Western Road goes streaming out to seek the cleanly wild
The Woof that I weave not
The world is charged with the grandeur of God
The world uprose as a man to find Him
They said: ‘She dwelleth in some place apart
They say there is a hollow, safe and still
This outer world is but the pictured scroll
This is he, who, felled by foes
Thou hope of all Humanity
Thou, for whom words have exhausted their sweetness
Though the long seasons seem to separate
Thou, so far, we grope to grasp thee
Thrice bless’d are they, who feel their loneliness
Through the dark night I wander on alone
Through the Uncreated
Thus while the days flew by, and years passed on
Tis Man’s own Nature, which in its own Life
To God, the everlasting, who abides
To make the Body and the Spirit one
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
To my friend Butts I write
To-night I tread the unsubstantial way
To see a World in a grain of sand
To the assembled folk
To the elements it came from
Trimurti, Trimurti
Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
Truth, so far, in my book;—the truth which draws
Under the flaming wings of cherubim
Unfold thy face, unmaske thy ray
Victim of love, in manhood’s prime
We are resolved into the supreme air
We know Thee, each in part
Well meaning readers! you that come as freinds
We sow the glebe, we reap the corn
We suffer. Why we suffer,—that is hid
What art Thou, dearest Lord, and what am I
What do I want of thee?
What domination of what darkness dies this hour
What do you seek within, O Soul, my Brother?
What happy, secret fountain
What is that beyond thy life
What is there hid in the heart of a rose
What is this?
What is this maiden fair
What is this reverence in extreme delight
What love I when I love Thee, O my God?
What, O Eternity
What of the Night, O Watcher?
What powerful Spirit lives within!
What’s that, which, ere I spake, was gone!
When all the shores of knowledge fade
When first thy Eies unveil, give thy Soul leave
When for the thorns with which I long, too long
When God at first made man
When He appoints to meet thee, go thou forth
When I am dead unto myself, and let
When I from life’s unrest had earned the grace
When I have gained the Hill
When I was young the days were long
When our five-angled spears, that pierced the world
When thee (O holy sacrificed Lambe)
When the Soul travails in her Night Obscure
When the storm was in the sky
When thou turn’st away from ill
When weight of all the garner’d years
Where is the land of Luthany
Where shall this self at last find happiness?
Who can blot out the Crosse, which th’instrument
Who gave thee, O Beauty
Why should I call Thee Lord, Who art my God?
Wide fields of corn along the valleys spread
Wild air, world-mothering air
Wise, O heart, is the heart which loves; but what of the heart which refrains
With a measure of light and a measure of shade
With brain o’erworn, with heart a summer clod
With Thee a moment! Then what dreams have play!
With this ambiguous earth
Would I could win some quiet and rest, and a little ease
Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build
Yonder the veil’d Musician sits, His feet
You never attained to Him. If to attain