AS THEY DRAW TO A CLOSE.
As they draw to a close,
Of what underhes the precedent songs—of my aims in them,
Of the seed I have sought to plant in them,
Of joy, sweet joy, through many a year, in them,
(For them, for them have I lived, in them my work is done,)
Of many an aspiration fond, of many a dream and plan;
Through Space and Time fused in a chant, and the flowing eternal identity,
To Nature encompassing these, encompassing God—to the joyous, electric all,
To the sense of Death, and accepting exulting in Death in its turn the same as life,
The entrance of man to sing;
To compact you, ye parted, diverse lives,
To put rapport the mountains and rocks and streams,
And the winds of the north, and the forests of oak and pine,
With you O soul.
JOY, SHIPMATE, JOY!
Joy, shipmate, joy!
(Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry,)
Our life is closed, our life begins,
The long, long anchorage we leave,
The ship is clear at last, she leaps!
She swiftly courses from the shore,
Joy, shipmate, joy.
THE UNTOLD WANT.
The untold want by life and land ne'er granted,
Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find.
PORTALS.
What are those of the known but to ascend and enter the Unknown?
And what are those of life but for Death?
THESE CAROLS.
These carols sung to cheer my passage through the world I see,
For completion I dedicate to the Invisible World.
