Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/252
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216
The Deepest Yearning.
Yet, ’neath the waves there dwells eternal calm:
Delve deep the sand, and to the rock it brings:
The inconstant crowd is voiceful of the soul,
Which liveth alway, an unfading palm,
Drawing its life from deep, divinest springs
That shall not fail while stars and systems roll.
Delve deep the sand, and to the rock it brings:
The inconstant crowd is voiceful of the soul,
Which liveth alway, an unfading palm,
Drawing its life from deep, divinest springs
That shall not fail while stars and systems roll.
Henry Allison.
CXLIX.
The Deepest Yearning.
Our life is more than meat. Deep in the Soul
Springs Godlike, God ward yearning; ay, and we,
Though earth-drawn, ever would rise, unstained and free,
Above the clouds of sense that hide our goal.
This wondrous frame of things is as a scroll
Of mystic import, teaching us to see,
Though vaguely, and through shrouds of mystery,
The working of that power which moves the Whole.
Not Science fair, though sought with purpose true,
Nor Art, that all her wealth upon us spends,
Can fill the soul. She can her strength renew
Only with bread that from on high descends.
She yearns for That to which all things are due—
The Centre deep to which all Being tends.
Springs Godlike, God ward yearning; ay, and we,
Though earth-drawn, ever would rise, unstained and free,
Above the clouds of sense that hide our goal.
This wondrous frame of things is as a scroll
Of mystic import, teaching us to see,
Though vaguely, and through shrouds of mystery,
The working of that power which moves the Whole.
Not Science fair, though sought with purpose true,
Nor Art, that all her wealth upon us spends,
Can fill the soul. She can her strength renew
Only with bread that from on high descends.
She yearns for That to which all things are due—
The Centre deep to which all Being tends.
Henry Allison.