Or if perchance, ye orbs of Fate,
Your ne'er averted glance

Beams with a will compassionate

On sons of time and chance,

Then clothe these hands with power

In just proportion,

Nor plant immense designs

Where equal means are none.'

CHORUS OF SPIRITS

Means, dear brother, ask them not;
Soul's desire is means enow,

Pure content is angel's lot,

Thine own theatre art thou.

Gentler far than falls the snow
In the woodwalks still and low

Fell the lesson on his heart

And woke the fear lest angels part.

POET

I see your forms with deep content,

I know that ye are excellent,

But will ye stay?

I hear the rustle of wings,

Ye meditate what to say

Ere ye go to quit me for ever and aye.

SPIRITS

Brother, we are no phantom band;
Brother, accept this fatal hand.
Aches thine unbelieving heart
With the fear that we must part?
See, all we are rooted here

By one thought to one same sphere;
From thyself thou canst not flee, -
From thyself no more can we.'

POET

Suns and stars their courses keep,
But not angels of the deep:

Day and night their turn observe,
But the day of day may swerve.
Is there warrant that the waves
Of thought in their mysterious caves
Will heap in me their highest tide,
In me therewith beatified?

Unsure the ebb and flood of thought,

Brother, sweeter is the Law

Than all the grace Love ever saw;
We are its suppliants. By it, we
Draw the breath of Eternity;

Serve thou it not for daily bread,
Serve it for pain and fear and need.
Love it, though it hide its light;
By love behold the sun at night.
If the Law should thee forget,
More enamoured serve it yet;
Though it hate thee, suffer long;
Put the Spirit in the wrong;
Brother, no decrepitude

Chills the limbs of Time;

I

As fleet his feet, his hands as good,
His vision as sublime :

On Nature's wheels there is no rust;
Nor less on man's enchanted dust
Beauty and Force alight.

FRAGMENTS ON THE POET AND THE POETIC GIFT

I

THERE are beggars in Iran and Araby,

SAID was hungrier than all;

Hafiz said he was a fly

That came to every festival.

He came a pilgrim to the Mosque

On trail of camel and caravan,
Knew every temple and kiosk
Out from Mecca to Ispahan;

Northward he went to the snowy hills,
At court he sat in the grave Divan.
His music was the south-wind's sigh,
His lamp, the maiden's downcast eye,
And ever the spell of beauty came
And turned the drowsy world to flame.
By lake and stream and gleaming hall
And modest copse and the forest tall,
Where'er he went, the magic guide
Kept its place by the poet's side.
Said melted the days like cups of pearl,
Served high and low, the lord and the churl,
Loved harebells nodding on a rock,

A cabin hung with curling smoke,
Ring of axe or hum of wheel

Or gleam which use can paint on steel,
And huts and tents; nor loved he less

Stately lords in palaces,

Princely women hard to please,

Fenced by form and ceremony,

Decked by courtly rites and dress

And etiquette of gentilesse.

But when the mate of the snow and wind,

He left each civil scale behind :

Him wood-gods fed with honey wild

And of his memory beguiled.

He loved to watch and wake

When the wing of the south-wind whipt the lake And the glassy surface in ripples brake

And fled in pretty frowns away
Like the fitting boreal lights,
Rippling roses in northern nights,
Or like the thrill of Æolian strings
In which the sudden wind-god rings.'
In caves and hollow trees he crept
And near the wolf and panther slept.
He came to the green ocean's brim
And saw the wheeling sea-birds skim,
Summer and winter, o'er the wave,
Like creatures of a skiey mould,
Impassible to heat or cold.

He stood before the tumbling main
With joy too tense for sober brain;
He shared the life of the element,
The tie of blood and home was rent:
As if in him the welkin walked,

The winds took flesh, the mountains talked,

And he the bard, a crystal soul

Sphered and concentric with the whole.

II

The Dervish whined to Said, "Thou didst not tarry while I prayed. Beware the fire that Eblis burned." But Saadi coldly thus returned, "Once with manlike love and fear I gave thee for an hour my ear, I kept the sun and stars at bay,