Part 6

Bread predilectedly O’ the worm and Deity! Hark, O God’s clay-sealed Ark,

To praise that fits thee, clear To the ear within the ear, But dense To clay-sealed sense.

All the Omnific made When in a word he said, (Mystery!) He uttered thee;

Thee His great utterance bore, O secret metaphor Of what Thou dream’st no jot!

Cosmic metonymy! Weak world-unshuttering key! One Seal of Solomon!

Trope that itself not scans Its huge significance, Which tries Cherubic eyes.

Primer where the angels all God’s grammar spell in small, Nor spell The highest too well.

Point for the great descants Of starry disputants; Equation Of creation.

Thou meaning, couldst thou see, Of all which dafteth thee; So plain, It mocks thy pain;

Stone of the Law indeed, Thine own self couldst thou read; Thy bliss Within thee is.

Compost of Heaven and mire, Slow foot and swift desire! Lo, To have Yes, choose No;

Gird, and thou shalt unbind; Seek not, and thou shalt find; To eat, Deny thy meat;

And thou shalt be fulfilled With all sweet things unwilled: So best God loves to jest

With children small—a freak Of heavenly hide-and-seek Fit For thy wayward wit,

Who art thyself a thing Of whim and wavering; Free When His wings pen thee;

Sole fully blest, to feel God whistle thee at heel; Drunk up As a dew-drop,

When He bends down, sun-wise, Intemperable eyes; Most proud, When utterly bowed.

To feel thyself and be His dear nonentity— Caught Beyond human thought

In the thunder-spout of Him, Until thy being dim, And be Dead deathlessly.

Stoop, stoop; for thou dost fear The nettle’s wrathful spear, So slight Art thou of might!

Rise; for Heaven hath no frown When thou to thee pluck’st down, Strong clod! The neck of God.

ASSUMPTA MARIA

‘Thou needst not sing new songs, but say the old.’—COWLEY.

Mortals, that behold a Woman, Rising ’twixt the Moon and Sun; Who am I the heavens assume? an All am I, and I am one.

Multitudinous ascend I, Dreadful as a battle arrayed, For I bear you whither tend I; Ye are I: be undismayed! I, the Ark that for the graven Tables of the Law was made; Man’s own heart was one, one Heaven, Both within my womb were laid. For there Anteros with Eros Heaven with man conjoinèd was,— Twin-stone of the Law, Ischyros, Agios Athanatos.

I, the flesh-girt Paradises Gardenered by the Adam new, Daintied o’er with sweet devices Which He loveth, for He grew. I, the boundless strict savannah Which God’s leaping feet go through; I, the heaven whence the Manna, Weary Israel, slid on you! He the Anteros and Eros, I the body, He the Cross; He upbeareth me, Ischyros, Agios Athanatos!

I am Daniel’s mystic Mountain, Whence the mighty stone was rolled; I am the four Rivers’ fountain, Watering Paradise of old; Cloud down-raining the Just One am, Danae of the Shower of Gold; I the Hostel of the Sun am; He the Lamb, and I the Fold. He the Anteros and Eros, I the body, He the Cross; He is fast to me, Ischyros, Agios Athanatos!

I, the presence-hall where Angels Do enwheel their placèd King— Even my thoughts which, without change else, Cyclic burn and cyclic sing. To the hollow of Heaven transplanted, I a breathing Eden spring, Where with venom all outpanted Lies the slimed Curse shrivelling. For the brazen Serpent clear on That old fangèd knowledge shone; I to Wisdom rise, Ischyron, Agion Athanaton!