The Poetical Works of George MacDonald (Parables)
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I cannot tell how long we joyous talked,
For from my sense old time had vanished quite, Space dim-remaining--for onward still we walked.
No sun arose to blot the pale, still night--
Still as the night of some great spongy stone That turns but once an age betwixt the light
And the huge shadow from its own bulk thrown,
And long as that to me before whose face Visions so many slid, and veils were blown
Aside from the vague vast of Isis' grace.
Innumerous thoughts yet throng that infinite hour, And hopes which greater hopes unceasing chase,
For I was all responsive to his power.
I saw my friends weep, wept, and let them weep; I saw the growth of each grief-nurtured flower;
I saw the gardener watching--in their sleep
Wiping their tears with the napkin he had laid Wrapped by itself when he climbed Hades' steep;
What wonder then I saw nor was dismayed!
I saw the dull, degraded monsters nursed In money-marshes, greedy men that preyed
Upon the helpless, ground the feeblest worst;
Yea all the human chaos, wild and waste, Where he who will not leave what God hath cursed
Now fruitless wallows, now is stung and chased
By visions lovely and by longings dire. "But who believeth, he shall not make haste,
Even passing through the water and the fire,
Or sad with memories of a better lot! He, saved by hope, for all men will desire,
Knowing that God into a mustard-jot
May shut an aeon; give a world that lay Wombed in its sun, a molten unorbed clot,
One moment from the red rim to spin away
Librating--ages to roll on weary wheel Ere it turn homeward, almost spent its day!
Who knows love all, time nothing, he shall feel
No anxious heart, shall lift no trembling hand; Tender as air, but clothed in triple steel,
He for his kind, in every age and land,
Hoping will live; and, to his labour bent, The Father's will shall, doing, understand."
So spake my brother as we onward went:
His words my heart received, as corn the lea, And answered with a harvest of content.
We came at last upon a lonesome sea.