| BACKWARD!—beyond this momentary woe!— | |
| Thine was the world’s dim dawn, the prime emprize; | |
| Eternal aeons gaze thro’ these sad eyes, | |
| And all the empyreal sphere hath shaped thee so. | |
| Nay! all is living, all is plain to know! | 5 |
| This rock has drunk the ray from ancient skies; | |
| Strike! and the sheen of that remote sunrise | |
| Gleams in the marble’s unforgetful glow. | |
| Thus hath the cosmic light endured the same | |
| Ere first that ray from Sun to Sirius flew; | 10 |
| Aye, and in heaven I heard the mystic Name | |
| Sound, and a breathing of the Spirit blew; | |
| Lit the long Past, bade shine the slumbering flame | |
| And all the Cosmorama blaze anew. | |
| |
| Onward! thro’ baffled hope, thro’ bootless prayer, | 15 |
| With strength that sinks, with high task half begun, | |
| Things great desired, things lamentable done, | |
| Vows writ in water, blows that beat the air. | |
| On! I have guessed the end; the end is fair. | |
| Not with these weak limbs is thy last race run; | 20 |
| Not all thy vision sets with this low sun; | |
| Not all thy spirit swoons in this despair. | |
| Look how thine own soul, throned where all is well, | |
| Smiles to regard thy days disconsolate; | |
| Yea; since herself she wove the worldly spell, | 25 |
| Doomed thee for lofty gain to low estate;— | |
| Sown with thy fall a seed of glory fell; | |
| Thy heaven is in thee, and thy will thy fate. | |
| |
| Inward! aye, deeper far than love or scorn, | |
| Deeper than bloom of virtue, stain of sin, | 30 |
| Rend thou the veil and pass alone within, | |
| Stand naked there and feel thyself forlorn! | |
| Nay! in what world, then, Spirit, wast thou born ? | |
| Or to what World-Soul art thou entered in ? | |
| Feel the Self fade, feel the great life begin, | 35 |
| With Love re-rising in the cosmic morn. | |
| The inward ardour yearns to the inmost goal; | |
| The endless goal is one with the endless way; | |
| From every gulf the tides of Being roll, | |
| From every zenith burns the indwelling day; | 40 |
| And life in Life has drowned thee and soul in Soul; | |
| And these are God, and thou thyself art they. | |
