Chapter II: The Ecstasy

Quick a current of delight
Through my body laughed and leapt,
Took the dazzle from my sight,
From the earth my senses swept;
Through the ringing air I sped,
Loosened as from bars of lead.

And my singing soul became
Infinite; the sea, the sky,
Were my flesh, the mighty frame
Of the Universe was I;
Mystic voices in me stirred,
And I cried, and I heard.

Crying how my Lady shone
Fairer than the dawn upon
Snowy-crested Himalay;
How she fed with golden fire
Red lamps of the Earth’s desire,
White lamps of the Milky Way.

Crying how, if she must die,
Sudden from the naked sky
Star and sun must fade and fall,
And from every naked tree
Foliage drop, and her death be
Earth’s and Heaven’s funeral.

So did I her glory sing
Through the quiet evening.
Every note and echo fell
Crystal as a chiming bell,
Strong and singular of beat,
Gay and simple, clear and sweet,
Gentle, yet with even sound
Calling to the southern bound
Of the world, and crying forth
Undiminished to the north.

And in those harmonious skies
All tempestuous energies
To such equipoise were wrought
Never a jarring atom fought.
There was neither jolt nor strain,
Shock, nor weight, nor clash, nor pain,
But I saw great Saturn float
Buoyant as a wandering mote
On a sunbeam, or like down
Of thistle indolently blown.

And I felt the deepening night
Saturated so with light
That the very darkness seemed
Light that more intensely dreamed;
And the light was filled with sense
Of Being and Omnipotence,--
Gathered now at instant will
To a single point, until
I was conscious of each bird,
Beast or creeping thing that stirred
In a lane or covert. Then
Consciousness would flow again
Evenly, and life would be
From all separation free:
Only my Belovèd shone,--
She and I, complete, alone.

And looking down with happy eyes
From my kingdom of the skies,
I saw my lady stoop and give
Glorious life for the world to live.

I saw how from the lullèd earth
Meeting her gaze the darkness fell
And light celestial sprang to birth,
And flowers changed the path of hell;
And to her lips she lifted up
Th’ essential world, created new,
And drank and drained the sacred cup
As sunfire drinks the morning dew.

From meadows of the noble dead,
From fields where baffled and forlorn
The conqueror lays his uncrowned head,
The very life of peace was born:
And in my lady’s heart of love
So soft, so dim that peace was felt
As when dusk enters a deep grove
Where, all day long, shadows have dwelt.

From lives of sick men, clean with pain,
She drew a virtue like the rare
Odour of windflowers washed with rain
Afloat upon the sensitive air;
And sick men felt in their hot room
The cooling garden-breezes blow,
And heaven pierce the fading gloom
With javelins of silver snow.

I saw the sere ungarnished tree
A treasury of green unlock,
And pastures crown the foaming sea,
And flame enliven the dull rock;
And frozen rivers were unsealed,
And waters through the desert ran,
And like a meteor shone revealed
The mystic in the common man;

Whose soul enchanted, winged with dream
And eyed with splendour, thrust her course
Rapid upon the darkling stream,
Sped by her own unconscious force,--
Content at last, content to ride
Free from the well-loved daily bond
Of time and place, on the full tide
Of Oceans unexplored beyond.

And there was song from every land,
In every tongue, in every key,
And every tiny lyric spanned
The chasms of infinity:
Yet I the Lover sang alone
To my Belovèd: all the throng
Of praising voices made but one
Hushed undercurrent of my song:

“O thou Belovèd of the Lover, thou,
Health-giver, Purifier, Strengthener,
Fountain, and spring, and river of the Sun.
O thou Belovèd of the Lover, strong
As morning or the full inflowing tide,
Calm as the evening sky above a lake.
Thou who art one and changeless, O Belovèd,
O thou Belovèd who art calm and strong.
O calm Belovèd, where all passion lies
Too deep to stir, and strong, O thou Belovèd
In frailty that shatters force. O Love!
Belovèd of the Lover, everlasting,
Beyond all Death, all Change, O Love Belovèd,
Be with the Lover always, calm and strong.”