George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.
I in Thee, and Thou in MeChristopher Pearse Cranch (18131892)
I
Passive I lie in thy sight, yet in my selfhood I strive
So to embody the life and love thou ever impartest
That in my sphere of the finite I may be truly alive.
Knowing thou shapest the clay with a vision and purpose divine,
So would I answer each touch of thy hand in its loving creation,
That in my conscious life thy power and beauty may shine.
Waking from sense into life of the soul, and the image of thee;
Working with thee in thy work to model humanity’s features
Into the likeness of God, myself from myself I would free.
Lit by thy wisdom and love, as roses are steeped in the morn;
Growing from clay to statue, from statue to flesh, till thou know me
Wrought into manhood celestial, and in thine image reborn.
Past the dark screen that divides these shows of the finite from thee.
Thine, thine only, this warm dear life, O loving Creator!
Thine the invisible future, born of the present, must be.