The Well-Born

So many people - people - in the world;     So few great souls, love ordered, well begun,     In answer to the fertile mother need!     So few who seem     The image of the Maker's mortal dream;     So many born of mere propinquity -     Of lustful habit, or of accident.     Their mothers felt     No mighty, all-compelling wish to see     Their bosoms garden-places     Abloom with flower faces;     No tidal wave swept o'er them with its flood;     No thrill of flesh or heart; no leap of blood;     No glowing fire, flaming to white desire     For mating and for motherhood:     Yet they bore children.     God! how mankind misuses Thy command,     To populate the earth!     How low is brought high birth!     How low the woman; when, inert as spawn     Left on the sands to fertilise,     She is the means through which the race goes on!     Not so the first intent.     Birth, as the Supreme Mind conceived it, meant     The clear imperious call of mate to mate     And the clear answer.    Only thus and then     Are fine, well-ordered, and potential lives     Brought into being.    Not by Church or State     Can birth be made legitimate,     Unless     Love in its fulness bless.     Creation so ordains its lofty laws     That man, while greater in all other things,     Is lesser in the generative cause.     The father may be merely man, the male;     Yet more than female must the mother be.     The woman who would fashion     Souls, for the use of earth and angels meet,     Must entertain a high and holy passion.     Not rank, or wealth, or influence of kings     Can give a soul its dower     Of majesty and power,     Unless the mother brings     Great love to that great hour.