The Secret Splendour

How can I tread life's mean thronged way

With feet that answer the wizard play

Of His heaven-hearred lone flute-voice,

His myriad trill of star-delight

Born of the sacred trance of night?

Shall I yearn with arms of futile flame,

Passion-enkindled, who have known

The immortal glow of worshipping

With flowering flesh the Ethereal One,

The Calm, the Pure, the Unperishing?

Hunger for earth-stained fitful joys

Fled on the mystery-drunken day

When my mouth first found the ecstasy

Of His unfathomable name!

To dust all fugitive beauty dims,

 For now the inviolate harmony

Of His gracious spirit-splendoured limbs

Has blinded my eyes with eternity!

3.6.32

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