Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Brighty Rands. 18231880756. The Thought
INTO the skies, one summer’s day, | |
I sent a little Thought away; | |
Up to where, in the blue round, | |
The sun sat shining without sound. | |
Then my Thought came back to me.— | 5 |
Little Thought, what did you see | |
In the regions whence you come? | |
And when I spoke, my Thought was dumb. | |
But she breathed of what was there, | |
In the pure bright upper air; | 10 |
And, because my Thought so shone, | |
I knew she had been shone upon. | |
Next, by night a Thought I sent | |
Up into the firmament; | |
When the eager stars were out, | 15 |
And the still moon shone about. | |
And my Thought went past the moon | |
In between the stars, but soon | |
Held her breath and durst not stir, | |
For the fear that covered her; | 20 |
Then she thought, in this demur: | |
‘Dare I look beneath the shade, | |
Into where the worlds are made; | |
Where the suns and stars are wrought? | |
Shall I meet another Thought? | 25 |
‘Will that other Thought have wings? | |
Shall I meet strange, heavenly things? | |
Thought of Thoughts, and Light of Lights, | |
Breath of Breaths, and Night of Nights?’ | |
Then my Thought began to hark | 30 |
In the illuminated dark, | |
Till the silence, over, under, | |
Made her heart beat more than thunder. | |
And my Thought, came trembling back, | |
But with something on her track, | 35 |
And with something at her side; | |
Nor till she has lived and died, | |
Lived and died, and lived again, | |
Will that awful thing seem plain. |