Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/1004

          O children of banishment,
            Souls overcast,
          Were the lights ye see vanish meant
            Alway to last,
Ye would know not the sun overshining the shadows and stars overpast.

          I that saw where ye trod
            The dim paths of the night
          Set the shadow call'd God
            In your skies to give light;
But the morning of manhood is risen, and the shadowless soul is in sight.

          The tree many-rooted
            That swells to the sky
          With frondage red-fruited,
            The life-tree am I;
In the buds of your lives is the sap of my leaves: ye shall live and not die.

          But the Gods of your fashion
            That take and that give,
          In their pity and passion
            That scourge and forgive,
They are worms that are bred in the bark that falls off; they shall die and not live.

          My own blood is what stanches
            The wounds in my bark;
          Stars caught in my branches
            Make day of the dark,
And are worshipp'd as suns till the sunrise shall tread out their fires as a spark.