Kingdom of Heaven (Thompson)


 * O WORLD invisible, we view thee,
 * O World intangible, we touch thee,
 * O World unknowable, we know thee,
 * Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!


 * Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
 * The eagle plunge to find the air-
 * That we ask of the stars in motion
 * If they have rumour of thee there?


 * Not where the wheeling systems darken,
 * And our benumbed conceiving soars!-
 * The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
 * Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.


 * The angels keep their ancient places; -
 * Turn but a stone, but start a wing!
 * ‘Tis ye, ‘tis your estranged faces,
 * That miss the many-splendoured thing.


 * But(when so sad thou canst not sadder)
 * Cry; -and upon thy so sore loss
 * Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
 * Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross


 * Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
 * Cry; -clinging Heaven by the hems;
 * And lo, Christ walking on the water
 * Not of Gennesareth, but Thames!