Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ETERNAL, by MARGARET LOUISA WOODS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ETERNAL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Earth is his garment and also heaven
Last Line: Answer with mercy and law and love!
Alternate Author Name(s): Woods, Mrs. Margaret Louisa Bradley
Subject(s): Creation; Future Life; Heaven; Soul; Retribution; Eternity; After Life; Paradise


EARTH is His garment and also heaven,
Its skirts are broadened from day to day
By a million shining shuttles driven
Through a formless woof till a form is given,
And the suns break forth like the buds in May.

The rushing river, the pulsing ocean,
The clouds when they clash and find a voice,
Are as folds that heave with a heart's emotion,
That cling and swing with the dancer's motion
When the sunburnt girls of the South rejoice.

Lo, when the vision of Man perceiveth
Beneath what all living eyes can see,
The mighty and jubilant heart that heaveth,
The Life that the dance of the forces weaveth,
He trembles perceiving and bows the knee.

And first he worships the Life in Nature,
He fashions him gods of earth and sky,
Strong lawless lords of the sentient creature,
He lends them language and name and feature
And an ear to hear when the nations cry.

He rears him altars where clouds are driven
Like dumb white surf on the rocks below.
Set in the midst of the spacious heaven
They watch while the world is tempest-riven,
How the lamps of God serenely glow.

But the years go by that deaden wonder,
And mute in the desert of the mind
He sits at last, while the wind and thunder
Sweep past and the deep Earth trembles under,
Yet the Spirit therein he cannot find.

He cries, "Art silent and dark for ever,
Thou Fear, Thou Light of the Universe?
Wilt thou as soul from body sever
The might of Thy word from Man's endeavour?
Speak to us Thunderer, though to curse!"

Answer, O Spirit, in exultation!
Spirit of God that still doth move
Over the deep of our Creation,
Spirit of Man in aspiration,
Answer with Mercy and Law and Love!





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