THE VOICE (An Ecstasy)

The Prelude I saw the regal sun look down And crown the earth with a golden crown: I saw his bright embraces fill The valley and assail the hill; I saw him kiss the hill I knew Where matted gorse and heather grew. I heard a child go whistling by To school—I heard the ploughmen cry To their horses—in the yard A bantam-cock was crowing hard— A pensive and complacent hen Began to drawl .. drawl ... drawl .... and then A puppy yapping with delight Chased and hustled her in flight. I took me to a tangled lane Hoping for quietness—in vain; I only in the world was mute. The blackbird laughed upon his flute, And starlings talked in wayward wise On creaking boughs, and up the skies The trembling, quick, delirious lark Sang until my soul was dark. So morning, noon and all day long The world was multiplied with song And I, distracted, could not sing; At length, toward the evening, I climbed the little hill I knew Where matted gorse and heather grew. Slowly, Slowly, Slowly at last the evening fell; Slowly beneath her drowsy spell The teeming brain of the world was quieted: The noise of day was dead. Now might a single human thought Flying out, keen-wrought, Usurp dominion of the sky, and fill The void of the world with a chant of love, and move it to one will. So from my ingathered soul Softly sang I to my Love— Softly, yet I heard the whole Shining world, beneath, above, Echo me and ring and ring Through the quiet evening. First I sang how she doth dwell Carven so within my mind That her tokens I do spell And her vital beauty find Paining me, oh everywhere Phantom-bright upon the air. Morning winds with liquid tune Her abounding joy express; Azure-folded deeps of June Tell me of her tenderness; Laughingly the waterbrooks Mirror her untainted looks. Trembling shadows wake in me Sense of the outflowing tide Of her hidden rarity, Till I dream her at my side,— And her prayed-for kisses rain Through and through me, sharp with pain. Hushed the melody I sang, Earth around me rang and rang.

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.”

The Return So did I in Heaven sing, And the lilac evening Deeper, deeper, deeper shone. Fairer yet and yet more fair Burned my kingdom of the air. So I sang—or did I sing? I, who still was listening. So I sang—yet was it mine, The Song, the Singing Voice divine? Sudden, in a fit of mirth, I that was so mighty grown Bent me low to see the Earth And the little hill I knew Where the gorse and heather grew. Then I cried and Heaven cried Loud with laughter, for I spied How my puny body lay In a coat of sombre grey Six foot long amid the heather With its two arms locked together, With its pinpoint eyes that burned Motionless and solemn turned In a brave unconscious stare On the diamonded air. Still I looked, and in a while Saw the growing of a smile On the lips and then a yawn, Then a difficult breath long-drawn— One deep breath, and then an arm Stretched out, and, as if alarm Seized it, the whole body shook. Then could I no longer look, For I felt my limbs and knew I was narrowed down again To my body, and I grew Quiet, fearing the disdain Of the stars who looked on me Fallen from their company. But I heard no sound of scorn, Only a far echo borne Of the Voice whose singing moves And quickens every thing that loves.