SPIRIT AND DUST by ROSA MULHOLLAND

I SAW the hills of Paradise above the silver sea:
A strong wind took me o'er the wave, borne by a white galleon,
And fanned the hot flame from my heart, and set my spirit free,
To walk upon those golden sands, heaped up against the moon.

I climbed the radiant mountain-side, and now was night no more;
Was golden heather underfoot, and all the stars had wings:
Then three came floating unto me from that enchanted shore;
I trembled in the glamour with a dread of beauteous things.

For two appeared as seraphim (the robe of one a rose,
With rubies from his girdle), and their eyes had got the hue
Of the early azure windflowers that in meadow nooks unclose,
To fringe the running streamlets when the April skies are blue.

Then he who was the centre shape, to whom his comrades clung
(Rose-robed and ruby-girdled, a star behind his head),
As he came on he spoke to me in some far-foreign tongue,
Which they who leaned on him to mine ear interpreted.

"I am thy living soul," he said; "thy mind and heart are these;
Be true to me through little years, and in God's Evermore
Thy risen dust shall walk with us beyond the silver seas,
Beyond yon moon, those golden sands, this misty, shifting shore."

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