| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 376. Turris Eburnea |
| By Wilfred Rowland Mary Childe (b. 1890) |
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A Song of God’s Fool the Mystic
MY soul is like a fencèd tower, | |
| And holds a secret room: | |
| I hide me in it many an hour | |
| Amid its dim perfume: | |
| I have my holy bloom, | 5 |
| The Rose of Heaven in flower: | |
| I hold my inner bower | |
| In strait and dreaming gloom, | |
| My soul my fencèd tower. | |
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| The Rose of soil angelical, | 10 |
| That shines not over earth, | |
| I have its buds and petals all, | |
| Inestimable of worth, | |
| Its blood-red calyces | |
| Dyed with the wine of God, | 15 |
| Roots earthy from that sod, | |
| Which dews in Syon bless, | |
| And leaves of loveliness. | |
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| Its radiant heart unfolds to me, | |
| Its starry soul is plain | 20 |
| In glimmering felicity, | |
| Dyed deep with love and pain: | |
| And while my glad eyes gaze | |
| Upon its petalled crown, | |
| I hear a song come down | 25 |
| With thanksgiving and praise | |
| Of the celestial town. | |
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| The moon, that torch Dianian, | |
| Dreams ever paganly: | |
| But I am only a simple man | 30 |
| In a white tower by the sea: | |
| There comes a liturgy, | |
| Even for a little span, | |
| Great voices Christian, | |
| Songs of my Lord to me, | 35 |
| To me, a simple man. | |
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| A tower of ivory it is | |
| Beside a shoreless sea: | |
| I look out of my lattices | |
| And the saints appear to me, | 40 |
| A singing company | |
| From heaven’s high palaces, | |
| Chaunting their litanies: | |
| White luting Cecily | |
| Their first choir-maiden is. | 45 |
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| The sea-wave crashes in my ears; | |
| Again their viols cease: | |
| I have been here for endless years. | |
| And the room is full of peace. | |
| Dim-sliding harmonies | 50 |
| And dreaming voice of seers | |
| Come past all barriers: | |
| With God I have no fears. | |
| And round meroll His seas. | |
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