Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
Hymn to LoveLascelles Abercrombie (18811938)
W
As thóu, Lóve, were, the déep thought
And we the speech of the thought; yea, spoken are we,
Thy fires of thought out-spoken:
Like fiérce móod in a sóng cáught,
We were as clamour’d words a fool may fling,
Loose words, of meaning broken.
The lives travelling dark fears,
And as a boy throws pebbles in a pool
Thrown down abysmal places?
And our journeying time theirs;
As words of air, life makes of starry earth
Sweet soul-delighted faces;
The great wind of the world’s fate
Is turned, as air to a shapen sound, to mind
And marvellous desires.
Not borne down by the wind’s weight;
The rushing time rings with our splendid word
Like darkness fill’d with fires.
And Love’s meaning our life wields,
Making our souls like syllables to throng
His tunes of exultation.
As rain blown along earth’s fields;
Yet are we god-desiring liturgy,
Sung joys of adoration;
We go charged with a strong flame;
For as a language Love hath seized on life
His burning heart to story.
Thy thought’s golden and glad name,
The mortal conscience of immortal glee,
Love’s zeal in Love’s own glory.