Poems (Shore)/The Mystery of Mysteries
THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES
I
Of all the planets yearning—as they runIn magic round still ending, still begun—To break the spell that holds them from the sun,Does any guard the secret of all things?Does some Star Emperor, other than the oneTo which the lark sweet adoration sings,Draw wiser worlds than ours around his throne?Or must our hope still further stretch 1ts wingsOn to that Point of Mystery, unknownMagnet of all the suns whose fiery carsWhirl myriads after them of unimagined stars?
II
Or seek the Cause of Causes far behind,The grave-clothes of a dateless past unwind,Till nothing but an embryo's dust we find,Which knew not whatwe know? Say, can we reach, By footprints faint as these, the Master-mind?What though primeval atoms dumbly teachThe law of change, which, ere life yet began,Gave form to formless matter,—can they preachOf aught that's older than themselves to Man?Reveal a Presence greater than we see,Greater than all we are and all we hope to be?
III
Perchance, perchance at last, his toils and tears,The long death-grapple of his hopes and fears,And wisdom martyred all the countless years,—Through deepening soul and heart's enlarged embrace,And Duty owned sole star of worshippers,—Shall this day's type of half-formed man efface(What time the wrangling Oracles are dumb)To set the crown of Godhead on our race,And work the nobler miracles to come.In vain for ages long we seek a signOf any God on earth, till Man becomes divine.