Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1157

 LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE

As voices are we in the worldly wind;

The great wind of the world's fate Is turn'd, as air to a shapen sound, to mind And marvellous desires.

��But not in the world as voices storm-shatter'd,

Not borne down by the wind's weight, The rushing time rings with our splendid word Like darkness fiird with fires.

For Love doth use us for a sound of song, And Love's meaning our life wields, Making our souls like syllables to throng His tunes of exultation.

��Down the blind speed of a fatal world we fly,

As rain blown along earth's fields; Yet are we god-desiring liturgy,

Sung joys of adoration;

Yea, made of chance and all a labouring strife,

We go charged with a strong flame; For as a language Love hath seized on life His burning heart to story.

Yea, Love, we are thine, the liturgy of thee,

Thy thought's golden and glad name, The mortal conscience of immortal glee,

Love's zeal in Love's own glory.

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