It was the Warrior within
        Who called “Awake! prepare for fight,
“Yet lose not memory in the din;
        “Make of thy gentleness thy might.

“Make of thy silence words to shake
        “The long-enthroned kings of earth;
“Make of thy will the force to break
        “Their towers of wantonness and mirth.”

It was the wise all-seeing soul
        Who counseled neither war nor peace
“Only be thou thyself that goal
        “In which the wars of time shall cease.”

—­April 15, 1893

Dusk

Dusk wraps the village in its dim caress;
Each chimney’s vapour, like a thin grey rod,
Mounting aloft through miles of quietness,
        Pillars the skies of God.

Far up they break or seem to break their line,
Mingling their nebulous crests that bow and nod
Under the light of those fierce stars that shine
        Out of the house of God.

Only in clouds and dreams I felt those souls
In the abyss, each fire hid in its clod,
From which in clouds and dreams the spirit rolls
        Into the vast of God.

—­May 15, 1893

Dawn

Still as the holy of holies breathes the vast,
Within its crystal depths the stars grow dim,
Fire on the altar of the hills at last
        Burns on the shadowy rim.

Moment that holds all moments, white upon
The verge it trembles; then like mists of flowers
Break from the fairy fountain of the dawn
        The hues of many hours.

Thrown downward from that high companionship
Of dreaming inmost heart with inmost heart,
Into the common daily ways I slip
        My fire from theirs apart.

—­June 15, 1893

Desire

With Thee a moment! then what dreams have play! 
Traditions of eternal toil arise,
Search for the high, austere and lonely way,
Where Brahma treads through the eternities. 
Ah, in the soul what memories arise!

And with what yearning inexpressible,
Rising from long forgetfulness I turn
To Thee, invisible, unrumoured, still: 
White for Thy whiteness all desires burn! 
Ah, with what longing once again I turn!

—­August 15, 1893

Deep Sleep

Heart-hidden from the outer things I rose,
The spirit woke anew in nightly birth
Into the vastness where forever glows
        The star-soul of the earth.

There all alone in primal ecstasy,
Within her depths where revels never tire,
The olden Beauty shines; each thought of me
        Is veined through with its fire.

And all my thoughts are throngs of living souls;
They breath in me, heart unto heart allied
With joy undimmed, though when the morning tolls
        The planets may divide.