THE MASTER-LIGHT THE silent Deep all strewn with stars Unswayably withholds A moon to reap the star-fraught ears That midnight's acre folds ; Though a sickle-blade in the harvest hour Reap all the stars away, And the gleaner maid of dawn shall leave The stark bare field of day. O Siva-moon be swift and raze Number and name and form, Leaving the boon of Wideness bright And Peace beyond all storm. March 12, 1934. Page-59

SACRIFICE OFFERED BY THE PHYSICAL SEED-SCATTERING and withered stems precede The earth-redemption, the return of light : Orphean fragments,—like offering,—still bleed, Shed over forest dene or upland height. Four elements on inmost altar ranged In equal balance, body of Orpheus slain ; By a fifth, his death to Incorruption changed,— Soul's quintessential Light within the fane. One paten with five sides I contemplate, Foreseeing far-off lives ; thereon we heap Actions and struggles and the thoughts we keep For future pyres, betokening mastery. " How should unnumbered acts be rendered

PHOENIX—OFFERED PHOENIX—OFFERED [Suggested in part by Yeats' lines :— " And lingered in the hidden desolate place, Where the last Phoenix died* And wrapped the flames above his holy head ;"] HEART of the holy Phoenix, grant my prayer to be thy hierophant: then in the desert precincts I prepare beggarly tokens of Love's regnitude, high sphered in spirit-lovely adamant,— dog worthy crumbs of the ambrosial food lifted in lordly rites by blissful celebrant amid the joy-thrilled firmaments of being. From wan and wind-swayed ashes came the victor, phoenix-renewed ; so from the dim earth symbol rise up, O Rose of seeing. Concealing s

CHIMING 'THE moon is a hollow gong. O let it beat The indiscerptible union of day and morrow, The chimes of midnight that from each other borrow— Toll three, count six, and three not yet complete. The moon is a hollow gong and it shall greet Snake-charming of Breath from Dust and Joy from Sorrow : Earth's wax shall yet the print of heaven borrow— Once three, now six, and three for the future's mete. The moon is a hollow gong that must complete The swiftening rush from a day to a fairer morrow That reaches Joy on stepping-stones of Sorrow— Slow three, swift six, three more-unimaged-fleet. November 21, 1

TO RICHARD SUDDEN enemies of joy (As thieves may run Through undergrowth—or clouds destroy The blaze of sun) Enter the chambers of delight To reive and rend Those memories of golden light Which Love will send. O Richard, be they far from you. May your blue eyes Be gladdened with moon-silvered dew And gold sunrise ; May rhythm of stars enthral your mind So that your lips Sing of their strength : no Scylla find Your songbuilt ships. March 13, 1938. Page-294

INVOCATION OF THE DIVINE MOTHER FOR HER EMERALD OF LIFE Shakti of God that moves upon the waters, Greatness and wideness of Spirit everlasting, From senses, mind and heart, from a myriad moods and quarters Enter with Thy puissances, transmuting and recasting. FOR HER TOPAZ OF TRUTH-EXISTENCE Wisdom of God, silent above Time-sources, Transcendent peak all creature-ken outvasting, Bring to heaven's roadsteads earth by devious courses, Calm, ordinant as lodestone though all ways are over casting. FOR HER AMETHYST OF THE POWER OF BEAUTY Beauty, star-enrobing, a strangling here From eldest aeons fraug

THE SEPARATED WHO, within that amber light Ecstasied beyond despair, Would forsake those leagues of sight, Drop through gloom-tormented air ? He distinguishes no longer Ill that triumphs, Right that fails Here where Vileness makes men stronger, Falsehood grossens, truth-light pales. Bring no tales of woe to bind him Back to earth-wayed mire ; Only burnished Song can find him On gay wings that will not tire. October 10, 1936. Page-214

ACROSS TRIUMPHANT ACRES OF THE NIGHT ACROSS triumphant acres of the night Slow-swung pinions of the unborn dream To the hidden daybreak pursue primeval flight. Chartless un frontiered aeons of the dark, On their lonely silence breaks no morning theme,— Our dreams have held the Promethean spark. But half descried, the dawn-lit peaks of joy,— There, living hues shall blend in a rainbow stream, And there no sundering thought can enter or destroy. January 8, 1935. Page-111

"WHEN TWILIGHT FALLS IN A DIM CASCADE" " Because, to him who ponders well, My rhymes more than their rhyming tell Of things discovered in the deep, Where only body's laid asleep. " [Lines from TO IRELAND IN THE COMING TIMES, by W. B. Yeats.] WHEN twilight falls in a dim cascade Over the eastern bars, And vapour-woven tent of shade Makes earth forget the stars, The Bringers of the hidden sleep From in world of star-lotus deep Are burthened with a heavy cry ; They mourn and half forget to fly. But when star-dignities exult Through twilight-softened air, The Borderers o

TO BOBBY, WISHING HIM CONTINUED HAPPINESS CONSPIRE with Fate for mingling of our stars To empty all thine horoscope of ill, Reaspect every planet ray that mars, Transmute the lead of lust to the gold of will. Well of the millstone of revolving days Shall crumb thy husks of sorrow down to naught ; But if some unbleached bitter husk yet stays, To my fore destined portion be it brought : Though many days I eat such bitter bread, It shall taste sweetly as the hours we spanned In followed work or play—viewing instead Of poison's Dark, loaves matching in hue thy hand. Joy, keep his hazel hair from griz