Page:The Soul of a Century.djvu/96

  Might! Will! Again but hollow words of Man That but suffice within man’s meager scope That from the sphere of matter never can Reach up into that unknown far off slope Where ends at length, Cosmic serenity. Beyond all matter, thought, Eternity You rule alone in the realm of unreached Hope.

You mystery, whose name we know not to employ, Henceforth I bid my lips be sealed as stone My admiration, gratitude, wild joy Are my soul’s offerings to the Unknown. That, and my will to serve You at your feet To fill each wish I sense with my heart-beat I pledge my days to this and this alone

To stir one stalk at least from out the barren soil, To plant one floweret upon some arrid plain, To add with one grain to all the toil That in the years to come we shall harvest not in vain. To join in planting all, whose yearnings meet In making of your living world the seat Of happier and better men again

Fond dreams of Palestine, land mythically strange, From early childhood you have traced within my life Your morning light, and your mystic shadows’ range, The dread of your deserts and the joy of your fruit-trees rife.

Your distant shadows in my youngest days Wove in my mind Bethlehem’s mystic star, Within me, Jordan, your palm trees used to sway, While your shrine, Jerusalem, shone brightly from afar.

Your peoples spirits gave my inner soul its cloak Its own emotions, musing thought and fears And with its tempting music there awoke, Words to the harp-strings, strumming in my ears.

Like a foreign fragrance, heavy with fullness sweet, It wafted me with the texture of its lore, With its dreamy poesy, with sorrows’ pangs replete In clouded dreams and fiery thought of yore.