The Secret Splendour

How?

How shall I praise You, Charmer,

 For the spell You cast on me,

 The glow and breath and harmony

You bring beneath embowering skies

 Of inly-lustred paradise

 Each time You draw me, Charmer,

Through darkness of shut eyes?

The blossoms there are music

 On stems of silences

And from the tune-effulgences

 A-tremble in that world apart

Whose petals bear no searing smart

You give one flower of music

 To treasure in my heart!

Again through shut-eyed darkness

I reach the world of death,

 But there's a flame upon my breath

 Inhaling ever more a fume

Of joy untouched by withering gloom

 And from my heart of darkness

Out-burns a music-bloom!

I know not how this beauty

Of soul takes earthly form;

But never shall a blinding storm

Destroy the mystery-blossomed rays

Of song that makes with dreaming gaze

 Each tone a mirrored beauty

Of Your enhaloed face!

3.2.34

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