| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 345. The New World |
| By Alfred Gurney |
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‘That new world which is the old.’—TENNYSON.
A NEW world did Columbus find? | |
| Ah! ’tis not so that world is found; | |
| God’s golden harvest-sheaves who bind | |
| Are tillers of another ground. | |
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| No new world like the old we need; | 5 |
| One thing suffices—one alone, | |
| A garnered world-harvest from seed | |
| The wounded Hands of Christ have sown. | |
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| No earthly Paradise avails, | |
| No Eldorado in the West; | 10 |
| The Spirit’s Breath must fill their sails | |
| Who seek the Highlands of the Blest. | |
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| By stripes is healing wrought, and stars | |
| Point ever to a central Sun; | |
| He flies the conquering flag, whose scars, | 15 |
| Transfigured, speak of Victory won. | |
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| O Royal Heart, Thy Kingdom come! | |
| All else may change; all else may go: | |
| Not eastward, westward, is our Home, | |
| But onward, upward:—even so! | 20 |
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| One Sign alone is love-designed, | |
| God’s Evergreen, the Eternal Rood; | |
| Happy the home-seekers who find | |
| Its meaning plain—a world renewed! | |
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