BEFORE THE DAWN
by: Alice Mary Buckton
(1867-1944)
- HOU,
for whom words have exhausted their sweetness--
- Thou, the All-End of all human desire--
- Thou, in whose Presence the ages are hourless,
- Gather me nigher!
-
- Husht in the chambers where Reason lies sleeping,
- Ere the Day claim us, to which we are told,--
- Wrapped in the veil of Thy slumbering Beauty,
- Fold me, oh fold!
-
- Fill me afresh with the wonder of wakening--
- Draw me again with Thy splendour and might--
- Open my lids but a moment, and grant me
- Sight of Thy sight!
-
- Out of the furthest high Throne of Thy Dwelling,
- A motionless Flame on the Bosom of Thought,
- Deign to uncover Thyself, O Eternal
- Seeker and Sought!
-
- Pure in the Body that offers Thee homage,
- Blest in the Thought that embraces Thee far,
- Next to Thy secret and innermost Breathing
- Thy worshippers are!
-
- Forth to the Day that I know not awaiting,
- Out to the highway Thy glory hath trod,
- Glad as a child, and as passionless, fearless,
- Lead me, O God!
"Before the Dawn" is reprinted
from The Oxford book of English mystical verse. Ed. D.H.S.
Nicholson. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1917. |
MORE POEMS BY ALICE MARY BUCKTON |
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