| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
| |
| 306. Bodily Extension |
| By John Charles Earle |
| |
| THE BODY is not bounded by its skin; | |
| Its effluence, like a gentle cloud of scent, | |
| Is wide into the air diffused, and, blent | |
| With elements unseen, its way doth win | |
| To ether frontiers, where take origin | 5 |
| Far subtler systems, nobler regions meant | |
| To be the area and the instrument | |
| Of operations ever to begin | |
| Anew and never end. Thus every man | |
| Wears as his robe the garment of the sky— | 10 |
| So close his union with the cosmic plan, | |
| So perfectly he pierces low and high— | |
| Reaching as far in space as creature can, | |
| And co-extending with immensity. | |
|
|
