SO FAR, SO NEAR
by: Christopher Cranch
(1813-1892)
- HOU, so
far, we grope to grasp thee--
- Thou, so near, we cannot clasp thee--
- Thou, so wise, our prayers grow heedless--
- Thou, so loving, they are needless!
- In each human soul thou shinest,
- Human-best is thy divinest.
- In each deed of love thou warmest;
- Evil into good transformest.
- Soul of all, and moving centre
- Of each moments life we enter.
- Breath of breathing--light of gladness--
- Infinite antidote of sadness;--
- All-preserving ether flowing
- Through the worlds, yet past our knowing.
- Never past our trust and loving,
- Nor from thine our life removing.
- Still creating, still inspiring,
- Never of thy creatures tiring;
- Artist of thy solar spaces;
- And thy humble human faces;
- Mighty glooms and splendours voicing;
- In thy plastic work rejoicing;
- Through benignant law connecting
- Best with best--and all perfecting,
- Though all human races claim thee,
- Thought and language fail to name thee,
- Mortal lips be dumb before thee,
- Silence only may adore thee!
"So Far, So Near" is reprinted
from The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. Ed. Nicholson
& Lee. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1917. |
MORE POEMS BY CHRISTOPHER CRANCH |
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