Passion-Flowers (Howe)/ΘΕΟΣ
ΘΕΟΣ.
He was—from out the primal darknessThe glancing of his armor shone,From depth to depth his starry tracesThroughout the great abyss were strown.
He was—ere there was one to worship,Ere spirit into matter came,Ere heart had fainted at his greatness,Ere tongue had trembled with his name.
He was—and human souls came giftedWith this great thought, their dower of birth,And men in childish fashion cherishedSome symbol that was God on earth.
He was—the upper air contained him,The sunlight was his smile of grace:In wrath, he gathered clouds about him,And loosed the thunder for its race.
He was—prophetic spirits sought himAt isolated mountain shrines;His breathing lit volcanic fires,His whisper stirred the sombre pines.
He was—men writ his deeds in fables,Priests in his name ruled well or ill;Their best of knowledge could but give himThe Sovran Deity of will.
He was—through thoughts and things chaotic,Through doubt and dreaming, ever new,Through creed profane and impious templeStill strangely out of man he grew.
He was—o'er human thought and impulseBrooding, till that untrammelled seaSet to the golden tide of duty,The law of Nature's majesty.
Still must thou brood, auspicious Power!A tenderer, deeper spell we crave;A holy harmony must gatherThe billowy Being, wave to wave.
Not pounding precepts dry and dusty,Like schoolmen wrangling in a gown,Came those, whom to our grateful knowledgeThe ages reverently hand down.
The tasks they wrought were tasks Titanic;With strength proportioned to our need,With mighty sweep of line and plummet,They laid the basis of our creed.
From high-strung thought to high-nerved action,Or through the painfulness of art,Or depth of saintliness outshining,They grew, the heroes of the heart.
The Prophet on the flaming mountain,The Sage in learning's leafy grove,The Sybil, in her awful beauty,Waited the birth serene of Love.
Then Love appeared, the hope of ages,Love, sad and strong, with bleeding brow,Wide-wandering as the fertile waters,Asking of Earth: 'Why weepest thou?'
He came, and men, beneath his urging,No more in doubt and darkness strode;But dared one valorous leap to Heaven,Brought thence Divineness, conquered God.