HYMN BEFORE ACTION. THE earth is full of anger, The seas are dark with wrath; The Nations in their harness Go up against our path! High lust and froward bearing, Deaf ear and soul uncaring, We seek Thy mercy now: The sinner that forswore Thee, The fool that passed Thee by, Our times are known before TheeLord, grant us strength to die! For those who kneel beside us At altars not Thine own, Who lack the lights that guide us, By honour bound they came; From panic, pride, and terror, Light haste and lawless error, Cloak Thou our undeserving, Make firm the shuddering breath, In silence and unswerving To taste thy lesser death! Ah, Mary pierced with sorrow, The soul that comes to-morrow For each at utter need True comrade and true foeman, Madonna, intercede! E'en now their vanguard gathers, Lord God of Battles, hear! TO THE TRUE ROMANCE. (From Many Inventions.) Thy face is far from this our war, I shall not find Thee quick and kind, And touch Thy garments' hem : Through wantonness if men profess And perish with their arts; While we adore discover more Since spoken word Man's Spirit stirred Beyond his belly-need, What is is Thine of fair design In thought and craft and deed; Each stroke aright of toil and fight, That was and that shall be, And hope too high, wherefore we die, Who holds by Thee hath Heaven in fee And knowledge sure that he endure A child until he die For to make plain that man's disdain Is but new Beauty's birth For to possess, in loneliness, The joy of all the earth. As Thou didst teach all lovers speech, And Life all mystery, So shalt Thou rule by every school Till love and longing die, Who wast or yet the lights were set, A whisper in the Void, Who shalt be sung through planets young When this is clean destroyed. Beyond the bounds our staring rounds, Across the pressing dark, The children wise of outer skies Look hitherward and mark |