Faint grew the yellow buds of light Far flickering beyond the snows, As leaning o'er the shadowy white Morn glimmered like a pale primrose.

Within an Indian vale below A child said "Om" with tender heart, Watching with loving eyes the glow In dayshine fade and night depart.

The word which Brahma at his dawn Outbreathes and endeth at his night; Whose tide of sound so rolling on Gives birth to orbs of golden light;

And beauty, wisdom, love, and youth, By its enchantment, gathered grow In age-long wandering to the truth, Through many a cycle's ebb and flow.

And here all lower life was stilled, The child was lifted to the Wise: A strange delight his spirit filled, And Brahm looked from his shining eyes.

--December 15, 1892

Krishna

The East was crowned with snow-cold bloom And hung with veils of pearly fleece; They died away into the gloom, Vistas of peace, and deeper peace.

And earth and air and wave and fire In awe and breathless silence stood, For One who pa.s.sed into their choir Linked them in mystic brotherhood.

Twilight of amethyst, amid The few strange stars that lit the heights, Where was the secret spirit hid, Where was Thy place, O Light of Lights?

The flame of Beauty far in s.p.a.ce-- When rose the fire, in Thee? in Me?

Which bowed the elemental race To adoration silently.

--February 15, 1893

Pain

Men have made them G.o.ds of love, Sun G.o.ds, givers of the rain, Deities of hill and grove, I have made a G.o.d of Pain.

Of my G.o.d I know this much, And in singing I repeat, Though there's anguish in his touch Yet his soul within is sweet.

--March 15, 1893

Three Counselors

It was the fairy of the place Moving within a little light, Who touched with dim and shadowy grace The conflict at its fever height.

It seemed to whisper "quietness,"

Then quietly itself was gone; Yet echoes of its mute caress Still rippled as the years flowed on.

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 G.o.d.

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 G.o.d.

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 G.o.d.

--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