The Secret Splendour

Rishi Parasara's Invocation

Lord of the Flame!

Flame that has stiffened into stone—

Flame that has melted into dew-

Flame that has leapt up into breath—

Wearing the robe of Time,

The tumult of life's protean hue,

The awful splendour of blind death—

Filling night's vacant clime

With the dim frenzy of star-wings!

I cry to Thee, O million-faced

Among Thy multitudes alone!

 raise my prayer to Thee, swift-paced

Whose beauty quivers through all things,

Lord of the Flame!

Lord of the Flame!

Hearken unto the hymnal word

Begotten of the burling brain

And the long vigil of the heart

Through keen hours of distress,

Tense with the sacrificial pain

Of eyes pierced by he mystic dart

Of Thy vast loveliness!

 My gloom with nameless ecstasy

 Turns luminous, my earth-desire—

Companionless, dream-sepulchred—

Awakes, a yearning tongue afire

With taste of Thy divinity,

Lord of the Flame!

Lord of the Flame!

Thy form primordial manifest,

Whence streamed this passionate pageantry

 That moves within our light of thought

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And shining orb of sense!

My heart grows wide with lust for Thee-

 I reel, the hymnal word forgot—

My eyes with tears are dense!

Sudden my limbs hang ages old!

An unimaginable wind

Lifts me from crest to giant crest

Of joy—O merge my dazzled mind

Into Thy Truth's transcendent gold,

Lord of the Flame!

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