Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/101

Frees it from time, and shapes creation's stuff
In likeness of the mind's ideal world;
Thence hath our sight its visionary ray
Wherein the painter and the sculptor see,
The poet dreams, the lover lives forlorn;
Thence music feeds on harmonies divine;
Beauty the soul creates it hath from thence,
And, in creating, takes that beauty's form;
That world, once seen, the soul puts beauty forth,
Bloom after bloom, and men who look on it
Enamored are and like unto it grow;
Then speeds the heart of youth to the most fair,
What fascinates it most, most imitates;
Such passion most maketh it beautiful.
So soul takes form of beauty it beholds
And images; yet far more oft 't is seen
In mortal raiment of divine desire;
Its heavenly thirst increases without end;
Unslaked its passion, wonderful it glows,
And fills its earthly sphere with unknown light:
Then shines apparent the eternal part
In the soul's nature, homesick for the fair,
And ever fairer as it turneth home:
So grows the soul to mortals manifest."
"Love is the great creator"; the reply

Came with the heart's voice in it, musical