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Sagas
of Vaster Britain: Poems of the Race, the Empire and
the Divinity of Man
by
William Wilfred Campbell
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EARTH
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MYSTICAL
ash of all being,
Tomb and womb of all time,
Healing, destroying, upbuilding,
Receiving, riving apart;
Cool and warm for rest,
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5 |
Or
hot for burgeoning life;
Clod; yet pulsate with being;
Infinite, ever-recurring,
Dark, sad house of all joy.
Night
that dawns in the bud
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10 |
Whose
perfect day is the flower;
Earth, red mantle of ruin,
Beautiful shroud of decay,
Marriage-bed of the cosmos,
Love that gives and receives,
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15 |
Nubian
nurse of all beauty,
Swart, ultimate fondler of joy;
Out of thy bosom all come,
Back to thy bosom return,
Where, in thy mystical chambers,
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20 |
Purified,
sifted, restored,
All life, dismantled, outworn,
Obeys the inevitable law.
Red
Eygpt rose from thy dust;
Greece, thine ineffable bloom,
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25 |
Child
of thy magical beauty,
Woke like a lotus at dawn.
All the mad might of the ages,
Their sad fated beauty, their joy,
Their passionate hopes and despairs,
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30 |
Arose
from thy bosom, and back
To thy yearning bosom return.
And
thou, Swart Mother, O Wise!
Thou to thy children wert kind.
Thou smoothedst the saddest of brows,
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35 |
Held
to thy breast all lovers,
Folded their beauty of limb,
As thou dost fold to thy rest
Thy rarest and fairest of bloom.
And
never undaunted spirit
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40 |
Trod
like a god thy rime,
But thou gavest him splendid rest,
Where in thy sepulchred chambers,
Thy great imperishable sleep,
Those kings of thy heart’s best joy.
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45 |
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