Songs of the Soul/Part 2/Nature's Nature

by Swami Yogananda

Layout 2

 

NATURE’S NATURE

Away, ye muses, all away,Away with songs of finch and fay,Away the jaundiced sightThat conflagrates the firefly’s lightTo bonfire,—That sets ablaze at onceYour musing’s burning lamps;That ornaments with rhymesThe penury-stricken looks betimes;That over-clothes the Logic lordWith fancy-swollen words.Away, the partial loveThat ’boldens nature to sit aboveHer Maker!

This day I fasten eye-lid doors,With absence wax my ears,With langour all congeal my tongue, my touch, my tears,That I myself may pore   Upon the things behind, ahead  Of the darkness ’round me spread.  I lock Dame Nature out  With all her fickle rout:  Somewhere here  In the darkness drear  I myself with cheer  My course will steerIn the pathE’er sought by all:Its magnet-callI hear.

Not here, not hereApollo would his burning chariot steer;Nor Dian dares to peepInto the sacred silence deep.

Not here, not hereThe mounts nor rebel waves, nor far or near,Can make me full of fear, nor evermoreTheir dreadful grandeur adore.[continued]

Not here, not hereThe soft capricious wiles of flowers,Nor swarming storm clouds’ sweeping terror,Nor doomsday’s thunder drearDismantling earth and stars,The cosmic beauties all to mar;  Dishevelling of trees  And light-haired skies,  Nor nature’s murderous mutiny  Nor man’s all-powerful destiny  Can touch me here.

  Not here, not here—  Through mind’s strong iron bars  No gods nor goblins, no men nor nature  Without my pass dare enter.  I look behind, ahead,  And on naught but darkness tread.  In wrath I strike, and set it ablaze  With the immortal spark of thought,  By the friction process brought

  Of concentration  And distraction;—  The darkness burns  With a million tongues,  And now I spy  All past, all distant things as nigh.

I smile sereneAs I expose to gazeIn wisdom’s brilliant blazeAll charms of the Hidden Home Unseen:The Home of Nature’s birth,The planets’ moulding hearth,The factory whence all forms or fairies start,The bards, colossal minds and hearts,The gods and all,And all, and all!

Away, AwayWith all the lightsome lays;—Oh, I’ll now portrayIn humble way,

And try to lisp half-truthsOf wordless charms of Thee UnseenTo whom Nature her nature owes, and sheen.