Page:A Chant of Mystics and Other Poems.djvu/79

 Upon my way. O pride of brawn and dare! I'd shake the lustre from the stars and steal The sap from the vines of June, and I would share My booty with the comrade that would seal His thieving faith with paeons to the deed That knows nor law, nor moral code, nor creed.

I ran and still I run away from Thee. Past pyramids and labyrinths of reason, Through gleaming forests, where the upas tree Feeds both the saint and sinner for a season. And I danced in its lethal shades; I climbed Up to the highest fruit-concealing bough That bends beneath a mocking wing; I rhymed My joy and pride: and o'er the very brow Of Death I leaped into the howling void, Where the acrobats of Mind, with balance-pole Of Logic in their hands, are ever employed In scanning the dark canyons of the Soul. And I was proud when on the tight rope I Essayed my feet and fixed my giddy brain Upon the universe; whereat the sky Was but a mute infinity of vain Belief; and every mystery divine, A sea-washed, iridescent hollow shell Upon the sands of faith: yea, every sign Upon the road led to an empty well.