Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/82

72 As if the gates of heaven had sent thee forth?"

And, going, the Roamer heard him murmur low—

"Keep him, O Shepherd of the ways of fire!"

And Victor blessed him with still grieving eyes;

And long they watched him where he made his way

Whom willingly he would have called his own,

Had love consented that their hearts should join.

Then, plunging in the darkness, first he knew

The miracle that dawned upon their eyes:

For light fell from him and in light he walked.

And as a star that rifts the drifting clouds

He passed within the roaring gulf profane;

The spectral rack swept o'er him, sin closed round;

And no man saw him; dark to them he was,

But to his sight their secrecy lay bare;

Nor legends of the ancient time alone,

Nor tales by travellers in far countries told,

Nor gods dethroned and cities of the dead,

Beheld he merely; many a wanton sect

Befouled Christ's name, and many a godless school

Blasphemed, miscalled by wisdom's golden name,

Philosophy; they cursed they knew not what.

He paused not where their meagre dogmas fell

No more than where the fool his orgies kept,

Yet heard and saw; the worst no lips can frame;

Nor now shall memory draw it from the mire.