Now do I stand upon the very brink Of my desire; as a soul released And purified by passing through the rays Of white Eternity, I view the world. Now am I all at peace; the heart that yearns In bitter loneliness through midnight hours Yet cannot voice its longing, brain that weaves Its subtle web around the central thought Yet never can absorb it; and this form, The visible pride of body, all complete Are one in union; the body knows Its uses and its worths and has no fear, The heart no more is empty, I have found Eternal love to fill it, and no more Gropes the blind brain for the Great Definite. Away from me, my people, lest the sight Of loving faces blunt the senses keen, Hovering on the pain of a new birth. 

 

 THE MOTHER 

 My son, my son, it is not well to tempt The thunders of Jehovah; He who placed Man on this earth, and gave him such a form And such a nature never did intend The form or nature to be changed. 

 

 THE SEEKER 

 Enough, Is it not parcel of the nobleness Of His conception thus to place us here Low in the scale; that we, by effort's worth, May reach to Him and equal Him at last? 

 

 THE MOTHER 

 Oh man was born for failure, not success, To strive and strive, and evermore to fail, And failing still strive ever; therein lies The nobleness that equals him to God Though linked to insufficient means for God. Why will you hope to change appointed fate? While still in man the sad twi-nature dwells, Godhead and manhood, still as dark and light The eternal war goes on. It is our lot, Accept it, spare us last catastrophe. 

 

 THE WIFE 

 Alas! alas! you see he marks you not, His eyes are fixed on distance, and his lips Move to the cadence of a song or prayer, I know not which; and ever and anon, His forehead, vivid with the teeming brain, Rests in his hollow hand. He marks you not; No more than raindrops plashing on a roof, Whereto perhaps one listens for a space And says "It raineth"—then again to sleep. 

 

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