Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/1001

          First life on my sources
            First drifted and swam;
          Out of me are the forces
            That save it or damn;
Out of me man and woman, and wild-beast and bird: before God was, I am.

          Beside or above me
            Naught is there to go;
          Love or unlove me,
            Unknow me or know,
I am that which unloves me and loves; I am stricken, and I am the blow.

          I the mark that is miss'd
            And the arrows that miss,
          I the mouth that is kiss'd
            And the breath in the kiss,
The search, and the sought, and the seeker, the soul and the body that is.

          I am that thing which blesses
            My spirit elate;
          That which caresses
            With hands uncreate
My limbs unbegotten that measure the length of the measure of fate.

          But what thing dost thou now,
            Looking Godward, to cry,
          'I am I, thou art thou,
            I am low, thou art high'?
I am thou, whom thou seekest to find him; find thou but thyself, thou art I.