Page:The Poet in the Desert.djvu/18

 As fully as the sun or the stars.

Indestructibly a part of Eternity.

Where are you, Truth, where are you?

The Desert is pitiless.

I am frightened of its bigness and its indifference.

I am alone, an atom thrown out from Eternity,

Allotted to do my part.

I will do my part, and it shall be my own.

I refuse to be moulded in the common mould,

None different from another.

I refuse to step regularly according to custom;

To measure myself among the monotonous patterns laid out before me.

I will be myself and obey the voice within me

Which impetuously cries to be free;

To wander imperiously, destroying the paths,

The moulds and the patterns.

O Truth discover yourself unto me.

[Enter, with shining wings.]

TRUTH:

Ask, and I will answer.

POET:

Your face is pale, like the earliest dawn, before the birds have awakened.

Your feet are like lilies by the rim of a pool.

And your wings the mist of a cataract wherein the sun plays.

Making a delicate glory ; fleeting ; iridescent.

Your face is calm, the abiding-place of Sorrow.

TRUTH:

I am Truth, the sword-bearer;

Never to be possessed by Man.