The Attack

When we came out of the wood     Was a great light!     The night uprisen stood     In white.     I wondered, I looked around     It was so fair. The bright     Stubble upon the ground     Shone white     Like any field of snow;     Yet warm the chase     Of faint night-breaths did go     Across my face!     White-bodied and warm the night was,     Sweet-scented to hold in my throat.     White and alight the night was.     A pale stroke smote     The pulse through the whole bland being     Which was This and me;     A pulse that still went fleeing,     Yet did not flee.     After the terrible rage, the death,     This wonder stood glistening?     All shapes of wonder, with suspended breath,     Arrested listening     In ecstatic reverie.     The whole, white Night! -     With wonder, every black tree     Blossomed outright.     I saw the transfiguration     And the present Host.     Transubstantiation     Of the Luminous Ghost.