Swelled and strove as in toils, though free,

Free as heaven, and as heaven sublime,

Clear as heaven of the toils of time.

IV

Suddenly, sheer from the heights to the depths of the sky and the sea,

Sprang from the darkness alive as a vision of life to be

Glory triune and transcendent of colour afar and afire,

Arching and darkening the darkness with light as of dream or desire.

Heaven, in the depth of its height, shone wistful and wan from above:

Earth from beneath, and the sea, shone stricken and breathless with love.

As a shadow may shine, so shone they; as ghosts of the viewless blest,

That sleep hath sight of alive in a rapture of sunbright rest,

The green earth glowed and the grey sky gleamed for a wondrous while;

And the storm's full frown was crossed by the light of its own deep smile.

As the darkness of thought and of passion is touched by the light that gives

Life deathless as love from the depth of a spirit that sees and lives,

From the soul of a seer and a singer, wherein as a scroll unfurled

Lies open the scripture of light and of darkness, the word of the world,

[Pg 153]

So, shapeless and measureless, lurid as anguish and haggard as crime,

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