John Drinkwater

The Fires of God

I

    Time gathers to my name;
    Along the ways wheredown my feet have passed
    I see the years with little triumph crowned,
    Exulting not for perils dared, downcast
    And weary-eyed and desolate for shame
    Of having been unstirred of all the sound
    Of the deep music of the men that move
    Through the world’s days in suffering and love.
 
    Poor barren years that brooded over-much
    On your own burden, pale and stricken years —
    Go down to your oblivion, we part
    With no reproach or ceremonial tears.
    Henceforth my hands are lifted to the touch
    Of hands that labour with me, and my heart
    Hereafter to the world’s heart shall be set
    And its own pain forget.
    Time gathers to my name —
    Days dead are dark; the days to be, a flame
    Of wonder and of promise, and great cries
    Of travelling people reach me —I must rise.
 

II

    Was I not man? Could I not rise alone
    Above the shifting of the things that be,
    Rise to the crest of all the stars and see
    The ways of all the world as from a throne?
    Was I not man, with proud imperial will
    To cancel all the secrets of high heaven?
    Should not my sole unbridled purpose fill
    All hidden paths with light when once was riven
    God’s veil by my indomitable will?
 
    So dreamt I, little man of little vision,
    Great only in unconsecrated pride;
    Man’s pity grew from pity to derision,
    And still I thought, ‘Albeit they deride,
    Yet is it mine uncharted ways to dare
    Unknown to these,
    And they shall stumble darkly, unaware
    Of solemn mysteries
    Whereof the key is mine alone to bear.’
 
    So I forgot my God, and I forgot
    The holy sweet communion of men,
    And moved in desolate places, where are not
    Meek hands held out with patient healing when
    The hours are heavy with uncharitable pain;
    No company but vain
    And arrogant thoughts were with me at my side.
    And ever to myself I lied,
    Saying, ‘Apart from all men thus I go
    To know the things that they may never know.’
 

III

    Then a great change befell:
    Long time I stood
    In witless hardihood
    With eyes on one sole changeless vision set —
    The deep disturbèd fret
    Of men who made brief tarrying in hell
    On their earth-travelling.
    It was as though the lives of men should be
    Set circle-wise, whereof one little span
    Through which all passed was blackened with the wing
    Of perilous evil, bateless misery.
    But all beyond, making the whole complete
    O’er which the travelling feet
    Of every man
    Made way or ever he might come to death,
    Was odorous with the breath
    Of honey-laden flowers, and alive
    With sacrificial ministrations sweet
    Of man to man, and swift and holy loves,
    And large heroic hopes, whereby should thrive
    Man’s spirit as he moves
    From dawn of life to the great dawn of death.
    It was as though mine eyes were set alone
    Upon that woeful passage of despair,
    Until I held that life had never known
    Dominion but in this most troubled place
    Where many a ruined grace
    And many a friendless care
    Ran to and fro in sorrowful unrest.
    Still in my hand I pressed
    Hope’s fragile chalice, whence I drew deep draughts
    Shaping belief that even yet should grow
    Out of this dread confusion, as of broken crafts
    Driven along ungovernable seas,
    Some threads of order, and that I should know
    After long vigil all the mysteries
    Of human wonder and of human fate.
    O fool, O only great
    In pride unhallowed, O most blind of heart!
    Confusion but more dark confusion bred,
    Grief nurtured grief, I cried aloud and said,
    'Through trackless ways the soul of man is hurled,
    No sign upon the forehead of the skies,
    No beacon, and no chart
    Are given to him, and the inscrutable world
    But mocks his scars and fills his mouth with dust.
 
        And lies bore lies,
        And lust bore lust,
        And the world was heavy with flowerless rods,
        And pride outran
        The strength of man
        Who had set himself in the place of gods.
 

IV

    Soon was I then to gather bitter shame
    Of spirit, I had been most wildly proud —
    Yet in my pride had been
    Some little courage, formless as a cloud,
    Unpiloted save by the vagrant wind,
    But still an earnest of the bonds that tame
    The legionary hates, of sacred loves that lean
    From the high soul of man towards his kind.
    And all my grief
    Had been for those I watched go to and fro.
    In uncompassioned woe
    Along that little span my unbelief
    Had fashioned in my vision as all life.
    Now even this so little virtue waned,
    For I became caught up into the strife
    That I had pitied, and my soul was stained
    At last by that most venomous despair,
    Self-pity.
         I no longer was aware
    Of any will to heal the world’s unrest,
    I suffered as it suffered, and I grew
    Troubled in all my daily trafficking,
    Not with the large heroic trouble known
    By proud adventurous men who would atone
    With their own passionate pity for the sting
    And anguish of a world of peril and snares;
    It was the trouble of a soul in thrall
    To mean despair,
    Driven about a waste where neither fall
    Of words from lips of love, nor consolation
    Of grave eyes comforting, nor ministration
    Of hand or heart could pierce the deadly wall
    Of self —of self, —I was a living shame —
    A broken promise. I had stood apart
    With pride rebellious and defiant heart,
    And now my pride had perished in the flame.
    I cried for succour as a little child
    Might supplicate whose days are undefiled —
    For tutored pride and innocence are one.
 
        To the gloom has won
        A gleam of the sun
        And into the barren desolate ways
        A scent is blown
        As of meadows mown
        By cooling rivers in clover days.
 

V

    I turned me from that place in humble wise,
    And fingers soft were laid upon mine eyes,
    And I beheld the fruitful earth, with store
    Of odorous treasure, full and golden grain,
    Ripe orchard bounty, slender stalks that bore
    Their flowered beauty with a meek content,
    The prosperous leaves that loved ths sun and rain,
    Shy creatures unreproved that came and went
    In garrulous joy among the fostering green.
    And, over all, the changes of the day
    And ordered year their mutable glory laid —
    Expectant winter soberly arrayed,
    The prudent diligent spring whose eyes have seen
    The beauty of the roses uncreate,
    Imperial June, magnificent, elate
    Beholding all the ripening loves that stray
    Among her blossoms, and the golden time
    Of the full ear and bounty of the boughs, —
    And the great hills and solemn chanting seas
    And prodigal meadows, answering to the chime
    Of God’s good year, and bearing on their brows
    The glory of processional mysteries
    From dawn to dawn, the woven shadow and shine
    Of the high moon, the twilight secrecies,
    And the inscrutable wonder of the stars
    Flung out along the reaches of the night.
 
        And the ancient might
        Of the binding bars
        Waned as I woke to a new desire
        For the choric song Of exultant, strong
        Earth-passionate menwith souls of fire.
 

VI

    'Twas given me to hear. As I beheld —
    With a new wisdom, tranquil, asking not
    For mystic revelation —this glory long forgot,
    This re-discovered triumph of the earth
    In high creative will and beauty’s pride
    Establshèd beyond the assaulting years,
    It came to me, a music that compelled
    Surrender of all tributary fears,
    Full-throated, fierce and rhythmic with the wide
    Beat of the pilgrim winds and labouring seas,
    Sent up from all the harbouring ways of earth
    Wherein the travelling feet of men have trod,
    Mounting the firmamental silences
    And challenging the golden gates of God.
 
        We bear the burden of the years
        Clean-limbed, clear-hearted, open-browed;
        Albeit sacramental tears
        Have dimmed our eyes, we know the proud
        Content of men who sweep unbowed
        Before the legionary fears;
        In sorrow we have grown to be
        The masters of adversity.
 
        Long ere from immanent silence leapt
        Obedient hands and fashioning will,
        The giant god within us slept,
        And dreamt of seasons to fulfil
        The shaping of our souls that still
        Expectant earthward vigil kept;
        Our wisdom grew from secrets drawn
        From that far-off dim-memoried dawn.
 
        Wise of the storied ages we,
        Of perils dared and crosses borne,
        Of heroes bound by no decree
        Of laws defiled or faiths outworn,
        Of poets who have held in scorn
        All mean and tyrannous things that be;
        We prophesy with lips that sped
        The songs of the prophetic dead.
 
        Wise of the brief belovèd span
        Of this our glad earth-travelling,
        Of beauty’s bloom and ordered plan,
        Of love and love’s compassioning,
        Of all the dear delights that spring
        From man’s communion with man;
        We cherish every hour that strays
        Adown the cataract of the days.
 
        We see the clear untroubled skies,
        We see the glory of the rose,
        And laugh, nor grieve that clouds will rise
        And wax with every wind that blows,
        Nor that the blossoming time will close,
        For beauty seen of humble eyes
        Immortal habitation has
        Though beauty’s form may pale and pass.
 
        Wise of the great unshapen age,
        To which we move with measured tread
        All girt with passionate truth to wage
        High battle for the word unsaid,
        The song unsung, the cause unled,
        The freedom that no hope can gauge;
        Strong-armed, sure-footed, iron-willed
        We sift and weave, we break and build.
 
        Into one hour we gather all
        The years gone down, the years unwrought,
        Upon our ears brave measures fall
        Across uncharted spaces brought,
        Upon our lips the words are caught
        Wherewith the dead the unborn call;
        From love to love, from height to height
        We press and none may curb our might.
 

VII

    O blessèd voices, O compassionate hands,
    Calling and healing, O great-hearted brothers!
    I come to you. Ring out across the lands
    Your benediction, and I too will sing
    With you, and haply kindle in another’s
    Dark desolate hour the flame you stirred in me.
    O bountiful earth, in adoration meet
    I bow to you; O glory of years to be,
    I too will labour to your fashioning.
    Go down, go down, unweariable feet,
    Together we will march towards the ways
    Wherein the marshalled hosts of morning wait
    In sleepless watch, with banners wide unfurled
    Across the skies in ceremonial state,
    To greet the men who lived triumphant days,
    And stormed the secret beauty of the world.
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