I
” Let the light be ! ” So spake He. And the Deeps
And Heights, the Lengths and Breadths rose into form
Out of sheer chaos, lit by nebulous steeps,
Or orbs flung spray-like from the luminous storm ;
And choirs celestial sang to seraph measure
How God had stooped to earth
Base things to make of worth ;
Matter with life t’ infuse ; both creeping worm
And man create with sparks from the divine treasure.
So doth the legend run,
Retold from sun to sun :
Yet, God, in me no little beam doth shine ;
But gloom Titanic fills
A soul that craves and wills :
Why, God, may not one feeble ray be mine?
II
Morn after morn I see the light-god’s steeds
Shake lucent manes upon the ocean’s brim ;
On eves, the god refulgent, soft recedes,
Leaving some radiant splendour after him :
O’ nights the moon and stars take up the story
Of His benign intent
In the broad firmament :
” Earth,” say they all, ” dear Earth shall not be dim
While we ride high bathed in the greater glory.”
Thus doth the shining clan
Flash hourly unto man.
While he in direst, blackest torment cries : –
” Lo, I in darkness go.
Groping in naught but woe,
All helpless, too, to make it otherwise ! ”
III
They say when night is darkest comes the dawn ;
From clouds of sombre jet the lightnings flash ;
That where the deep Plutonian caverns yawn
There gleaming gems leap forth and lustres clash ;
That Phosphor glints in ocean’s last recesses ;
There is no secret place
Without the saving grace
Of something to illume, and cut the leash
That holds it else in wanton direnesses.
Unfathomable soul,
In thy stupendous whole
Not one luciferous atom I perceive ;
What mystic purpose this,
That I am born to miss
What other things unseeking yet receive?
IV
One time, aweary of all speechless things,
I turned my eyes unto the haunts of men ;
Towards them my steps did bend, sped by the wings
Of hope that, though I’d failed, ten times ten,
Yet of their wisdom they could me enlighten.
I found a little band
Scattered throughout the land.
On citied plains, in farthest mountain glen,
Brawling their mission human souls to brighten.
All wistfully I heard
Of their light-bearing Word,
That in the East had risen majestically ;
Risen the wrong to right
To give blind souls a sight
For meanings that all things do underlie.
V
I hied me to the splendid Nazarene,
And with Him tramped a time life’s broad highway,
Till every chamber of my mind at e’en
Was warmed with fervour of the words He’d say,
And Love He had for all the reeds quite broken.
Though, Jesus, warmth Thou hast,
As life itself so vast,
Yet have I found no light in Thee, no day,
Nor of the longed-for day’s approach one token.
Nor reason, supreme gift.
Brings in the night a rift ;
Rather doth heap the piles of blackness high –
From darkness come alone,
Back to the darkness blown,
My life, for but one ray of light, a sigh.
(Charles Granville)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, God Poems, Life Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Time Poems, Soul Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Hope Poems, Success Poems, Jesus Christ PoemsBased on Keywords: direst, nebulous, phosphor, lustres, retold, majestically, breadths, plutonian, underlie, citied, light-bearing