_Thou_ heededst not? Nay, for it was not thou, That blind, mute clay relinquished by the waves Reluctantly at last, and slumbering now In one of kind earth’s most compassionate graves! Not thou, not thou,--for thou wert in the light Of the Unspeakable, where time is not. Thou sawest those tears; but in thy perfect sight And thy eternal thought Were they not even now all wiped away In the reunion of the infinite day!
There face to face thou sawest the living God And worshipedst, beholding Him the same Adored on earth as Love, the same whose rod Thou hadst endured as Life, whose secret name Thou now didst learn, the healing name of Death. In that unroutable profound of peace, Beyond experience of pulse and breath, Beyond the last release Of longing, rose to greet thee all the lords Of Thought, with consummation in their words.
He of the seven cities claimed, whose eyes, Though blind, saw gods and heroes, and the fall Of Ilium, and many alien skies, And Circe’s Isle; and he whom mortals call The Thunderous, who sang the Titan bound As thou the Titan victor; the benign Spirit of Plato; Job; and Judah’s crowned Singer and seer divine; Omar; the Tuscan; Milton vast and strong; And Shakspeare, captain of the host of Song.
Back from the underworld of whelming change To the wide-glittering beach thy body came; And thou didst contemplate with wonder strange And curious regard thy kindred flame, Fed sweet with frankincense and wine and salt, With fierce purgation search thee, soon resolving Thee to the elements of the airy vault And the far spheres revolving, The common waters, the familiar woods, And the great hills’ inviolate solitudes.
Thy close companions there officiated With solemn mourning and with mindful tears;-- The pained, imperious wanderer unmated Who voiced the wrath of those rebellious years; Trelawney, lion limbed and high of heart; And he, that gentlest sage and friend most true, Whom Adonais loved. With these bore part One grieving ghost, that flew Hither and thither through the smoke unstirred In wailing semblance of a wild white bird.
O heart of fire, that fire might not consume, For ever glad the world because of thee; Because of thee for ever eyes illume A more enchanted earth, a lovelier sea! O poignant voice of the desire of life, Piercing our lethargy, because thy call Aroused our spirits to a nobler strife Where base and sordid fall, For ever past the conflict and the pain More clearly beams the goal we shall attain!