He finds God. There is no uncertainty about it. From childhood to
Godhood has the poet come, and we have come with him. It has been
a triumphant journey upward. But we have not been afraid. Even the
blinding light of God's face has not made us tremble. We have
learned to know him through this climb upward and upward to his throne.
At first it was uncertain. The poet had to challenge us to one great
end in "The Paradox":
"But one thing is needful; and ye shall be true
To yourself and the goal and the God that ye seek;
Yea, the day and the night shall requite it to you
If ye love one another, if your love be not weak!"
Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.
For he knew the heart hunger for God that was in every human breast:
"I am full-fed, and yet
I hunger!
Who set this fiercer famine in my maw?
Who set this fiercer hunger in my heart?"
Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.
From "Drake" comes that scintillating line: "A scribble of God's finger
in the sky"; and an admonition to the preacher: "Thou art God's
minister, not God's oracle!"
Nor did he forget that man, in his search for God, is, after all, but
man, and weak! So from "Tales of a Mermaid Tavern":
"... and of that other Ocean
Where all men sail so blindly, and misjudge
Their friends, their charts, their storms, their stars, their
_God!_"
Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.
Even like unto "Bo'sin Bill," who was and is a prevalent type, but not
a serious type--that man who claims to be an atheist, but in times of
stress, like unto us all, turns to God. And what humorous creatures we
are! Enough to make God smile, if he did not love us so much:
"But our bo'sin Bill was an atheist still
Ex-cept--sometimes--in the dark!"
Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.
And again from "The Paradox":
"Flashing forth as a flame,
The unnameable Name,
The ineffable Word,
_I am the Lord_!"
"I am the End to which the whole world strives:
Therefore are ye girdled with a wild desire and shod
With sorrow; for among you all no soul
Shall ever cease, or sleep, or reach its goal
Of union and communion with the Whole
Or rest content with less than being God."
Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.
And thus we find God, with Noyes. And I have saved for the last
quotation one from "The Origin of Life," which the poet says is
"Written in answer to certain scientific theories." I save it for the
last because, strangely, it sums up all the journey that we have passed
through, from childhood to God-hood:
"Watched the great hills like clouds arise and set,
And one--named Olivet;
When you have seen as a shadow passing away,
One child clasp hands and pray;
When you have seen emerge from that dark mire
One martyr ringed with fire;
Or, from that Nothingness, by special grace
One woman's love-lit face...."
* * * * *
"Dare you re-kindle then,
One faith for faithless men,
And say you found, on that dark road you trod,
In the beginning, _God_?"
Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes.
[Illustration: JOHN MASEFIELD.]