What meaneth Charity, God’s secret word,
But kiss her feet, and veil their burning sight
Before her naked heart, her naked sword.
SIGHT AND INSIGHT
This hour God’s darkest mysteries
Are plainer than the screeds of men,
Tangled and false philosophies
Fashioned by lying tongue and pen.
Plain as those bastions of cloud,
Kind as the wide and kindly skies,
And in the wild winds shouting loud
The truths concealed from pedants’ eyes.
Pages which he may read who runs,
Where no unlettered man may fail,
Candid as are his noonday suns
Familiar as his cheese and ale.
Him, Whom our eyes may see, our ears
Hear, Whom our groping hands may touch--
Him we shall find ere many years,
And finding fear not overmuch.
Who gave me simple things to keep,--
Laughter and love and memories,
A farm, and meadows full of sheep,
And quiet gardens full of bees,
And those five gateways of the soul,
Through which all good may come to me,
Saints glorious of aureole,
The flying thunders of the sea,
And feasts, and gracious hands of friends,
And flowers good to stroke and smell;
Oh, in the secret woods He sends
The birds their trembling joys to tell!
He, too, is every day afresh
Hid and revealed in bread and wine,--
The awful Word of God made flesh,
Mortal commingling with divine!
Shadows and evil dreams o’erthrown
With Dagon and the gods of scorn,
Since Peace was in the silence blown
On that dear night when God was born.
CHRISTMAS CAROL
Lay quietly Thy kingly head
O mighty weakness from on high;
God rest Thee in Thy manger-bed--
_Sing Lullo-lullo-lullaby_--
O Splendour hid from every eye!--
_La-lullo-lullo-lullaby!_
“Ye mild and humble cattle, yield
Room for my little son to lie;
Your God and mine is here revealed--
_Sing Lullo-lullo-lullaby_--
Naked beneath a naked sky--
_La-lullo-lullo-lullaby!_
“Deal kindly with Him, moon and sun;
No bird to Him a song deny;
Ye winds and showers every one
_Sing Lullo-lullo-lullaby_--
For men shall cast Him out to die ...
_La-lullo-lullo-lullaby!_”
A GARDEN ENCLOSED
There is a plot where all the winds are still,
A hidden garden where no voice is heard,
Only a splashing fountain and the shrill
Sweet clamour of a bird.
The poplars guard like tall, grave sentinels
Its peace inviolate; and in the tower
With careful ritual ring out the bells
The end of each dead hour.
Laburnums, hollyhocks and roses run
By secret paths--but who shall burst the bars?
Oh, who shall see--except the curious sun
And all the peering stars?...
And Thou and Thou, my Love, for whom I keep
My heart a watered garden, all Thine own,
Where flowers my guardian angel tends in sleep,
Bright summer blooms, are grown!
Come, my Belovèd, come--behold, the skies
Are fragrant with the evening scents and dew:
My soul hath sickened for Thy lips and eyes,
And laden is with rue!
Oh, Thou shalt fly with soft wings like a dove’s
And hold me fast beyond all fate and fear,
And we ’mid flowers shall tell our flowering loves
Where no one else can hear!
THE LOVER
An hour ago I saw Thee ride in gold
Along the burning highways of the skies;
And now--Thou comest with soft and suppliant eyes,
And fearing lest Thy love seem overbold.
In this dear garden set with flower and tree,
My soul, a maiden whom a great king woos,
Stands thrilled and silent--Lord, what can she choose,
Dumbfounded by Thy strange humility?
Since Thou wilt have it so, my Lord, I bare
In love and shamefastness my soul--Thy soul--
So lay Thy tender hand, an aureole,
Upon my beating heart, my chrismed hair.