VI

’ T was given me to hear. As I beheld — With a new wisdom, tranquil, asking not For mystic revelation — this glory long forgot, This re-discovered triumph of the earth

In high creative will and beauty’ s pride Establishèd beyond the assaulting years, It came to me, a music that compelled Surrender of all tributary fears,

Full-throated, fierce, and rhythmic with the wide Beat of the pilgrim winds and labouring seas, Sent up from all the harbouring ways of earth Wherein the travelling feet of men have trod,

Mounting the firmamental silences And challenging the golden gates of God. We bear the burden of the years Clean limbed, clear-hearted, open-browed,

Albeit sacramental tears Have dimmed our eyes, we know the proud Content of men who sweep unbowed Before the legionary fears;

In sorrow we have grown to be The masters of adversity. Wise of the storied ages we, Of perils dared and crosses borne,

Of heroes bound by no decree Of laws defiled or faiths outworn, Of poets who have held in scorn All mean and tyrannous things that be;

We prophesy with lips that sped The songs of the prophetic dead. Wise of the brief belovèd span Of this our glad earth-travelling,

Of beauty’ s bloom and ordered plan, Of love and loves compassioning, Of all the dear delights that spring From man’ s communion with man;

We cherish every hour that strays Adown the cataract of the days. We see the clear untroubled skies, We see the summer of the rose

And laugh, nor grieve that clouds will rise And wax with every wind that blows, Nor that the blossoming time will close, For beauty seen of humble eyes

Immortal habitation has Though beauty’ s form may pale and pass. Wise of the great unshapen age, To which we move with measured tread

All girt with passionate truth to wage High battle for the word unsaid, The song unsung, the cause unled, The freedom that no hope can gauge;

Strong-armed, sure-footed, iron-willed We sift and weave, we break and build. Into one hour we gather all The years gone down, the years unwrought

Upon our ears brave measures fall Across uncharted spaces brought, Upon our lips the words are caught Wherewith the dead the unborn call;

From love to love, from height to height We press and none may curb our might.