The Breath of Light

From the cool and dark-lipped furrows         breathes a dim delight     Aureoles of joy encircle         every blade of grass     Where the dew-fed creatures silent         and enraptured pass:     And the restless ploughman pauses,         turns, and wondering     Deep beneath his rustic habit         finds himself a king;     For a fiery moment looking         with the eyes of God     Over fields a slave at morning         bowed him to the sod.     Blind and dense with revelation         every moment flies,     And unto the Mighty Mother         gay, eternal, rise     All the hopes we hold, the gladness,         dreams of things to be.     One of all they generations,         Mother, hails to thee!     Hail! and hail! and hail for ever:         though I turn again     For they joy unto the human         vestures of pain.     I, thy child, who went forth radiant         in the golden prime     Find thee still the mother-hearted         through my night in time;     Find in thee the old enchantment,         there behind the veil     Where the Gods my brothers linger,         Hail! for ever, Hail! --May 15, 1895