A Vision of the Desert

Methought I saw the morning bloom
A solemn wilderness illume,
Desert sand and empty air :
Yet in a moment I was aware
Of One who grew from forth the East,
Mounted upon a vasty Beast.
It swung with silent, equal stride.
With a mighty shadow by the side :
The tawny, tufted hair was frayed ;
The long, protruding snout was laid
Level before it ; looking calm away
From that imperial rising of the Day.
Methought a very awful One
Towered speechless thereupon :
All the figure like a cloud
An ample mantle did enshroud,
Folding heavily dark and white,
Concealing all the face from sight.
Save where through storm -like rifts there came
A terrible gleam of eyes like flame.

Then I oeheld how on his arm
A child was lying without alarm.
With innocent rest it lay asleep ;
Awakening soon to laugh and leap ;
Yet well I knew, whatever passed,
The arm that held would hold it fast.
Nor ever then it sought to know
Whose tender strength encircled so,
See note D,
Living incuriously wise
Under the terrible flame of eyes.
In those sweet early morning hours
It played with dewy, wreathing flowers.
Drinking oft from a little flask
Under the mantle : I heard it ask :
Yea, and at other times the cooling cup
Gentle and merciful He tilted up.

But when the sun began to burn,
I saw the child more restless turn,
Seeking to view the silent One :
Then, growing graver thereupon.
It whispered " Father ! " but I never heard
If any lips in answer stirred.
Yet if no answer reached the child,
I know not why he lay and smiled,
Raising his little arms on high
In a solemn rapture quietly !

The shadow moved, and growing less,
A blue blaze ruled the wilderness.
The child, alert with life and fire,
Gazed all around with infinite desire.
Erect he sat, contented now no more
To nestle, and feed upon the homely store :
He searched the lessening distance whence they came ;
He peered into the clear cserulean flame ;
His hand would mingle with the shaggy hair
Of that enormous Living Thing which bare,
Whose feet were planted in the powdery ground
With ne'er a pause, with ne'er a sound.
Yon fascinating, wondrous Infinite
His clear young eyes explored with keen delight :
He gazed into the muffled Countenance,
Undazzled with the rifted radiance :
Then, giving names to all that he espied.
He murmured with a bright triumphant pride,
" I hold their secret : lo! I am satisfied."
Oh! it was rare to see the lovely child,
As with a gaze ecstatical he smiled,
Following with eager, splendour-beaming eyes
A bird magnificent, who sailed the skies
Peacefully lay the boy's pale, silent head :
And, looking long, I knew that he was dead.
Then all my wildered anguish forced a way
Through my wild lips : " Reveal, O Lord,
I pray.
Whither thou carriest him ! " I cried aloud :
No sound responded from the shadowy shroud ;
Only methought that something like a hand
Was raised to point athwart the shadowy land ;
And while afar the dwindling twain were borne,
I, gazing all around with eyes forlorn,
Divined the bloom of some unearthly morn !

Where was he carried ? to an isle of calm,
Lulled with sweet water and the pensile palm?
Vanishing havens on the pilgrimage
Surely some more abiding home presage !
Or must the Sire attain always alone
The happy land, with never a living son ?
O ! awful, silent, everlasting One !
If thou must roam those islands of the West,
Ever with some dead child upon thy breast,
Who would have hailed the glory, being blest.
Eternity were one long moan for rest !
For do we not behold thee morn by morn,
Issuing from the East with one newborn.
Carrying him silently, none knoweth whither,
Knowing only all we travel swiftly thither ?