Page:Dreams and Images.djvu/264

Long ago was I weary of voices
  Whose magic my heart could not win;
Long ago was I weary of noises
  That fretted my soul with their din;
Long ago was I weary of places
  Where I met but the human—and sin.

I walked through the world with the worldly;
  I craved what the world never gave;
And I said: "In the world, each Ideal
  That shines like a star on life's wave,
Is wrecked on the shores of the Real,
  And sleeps like a dream in a grave."

And still did I pine for the Perfect,
  And still found the false with the true;
I sought 'mid the human for heaven,
  And caught a mere glimpse of its blue;
And I wept when the clouds of the mortal
  Veiled even that glimpse from my view.

And I toiled on, heart-tired of the Human;
  And I moaned 'mid the mazes of men;
Till I knelt, long ago, at an altar
  And heard a voice call me. Since then
I walk down the Valley of Silence
  That lies far beyond human ken.

Do you ask what I found in the Valley?
  'Tis my trysting-place with the Divine;
And I fell at the feet of the Holy,
  And above me a voice said: "Be mine!"
And there rose from the depths of my spirit
  An echo—"My heart shall be thine."