138
POEMS.
To him whose vision looks beyond
All names and shapes of numbered days,
All accidents of human ways,
And, superseding signs and shrifts
Of all allegiances, lifts
Service to Freedom's regal plane
Beyond compulsion or disdain.
All names and shapes of numbered days,
All accidents of human ways,
And, superseding signs and shrifts
Of all allegiances, lifts
Service to Freedom's regal plane
Beyond compulsion or disdain.
This king, this royal, simple king,
Whose kingliness I love and sing,
Has not much silver or much gold:
Told as kings' treasuries are told,
Beggar's estate he must confess.
But all the lavish wilderness
Sets state for him. Tall pine-trees bend;
Strange birds sing songs which never end.
The sunset and the sunrise sweep
Backward and forward swift, to keep
Fresh glory round his pathway. Then,
Of sudden men discover, when
They journey thither by his side,
What pomp and splendor are supplied
By Nature's smallest, subtlest thing,
To hail and crown the simple king.
Yea! and the dull and stony street,
And walls within which rich men meet,
Cities, and all they compass, grow
Significant, when to and fro
The simple king, unrecognized,
Unenvious, and unsurprised,
Walks smilingly, and as he treads
Unconscious benediction spreads.
Whose kingliness I love and sing,
Has not much silver or much gold:
Told as kings' treasuries are told,
Beggar's estate he must confess.
But all the lavish wilderness
Sets state for him. Tall pine-trees bend;
Strange birds sing songs which never end.
The sunset and the sunrise sweep
Backward and forward swift, to keep
Fresh glory round his pathway. Then,
Of sudden men discover, when
They journey thither by his side,
What pomp and splendor are supplied
By Nature's smallest, subtlest thing,
To hail and crown the simple king.
Yea! and the dull and stony street,
And walls within which rich men meet,
Cities, and all they compass, grow
Significant, when to and fro
The simple king, unrecognized,
Unenvious, and unsurprised,
Walks smilingly, and as he treads
Unconscious benediction spreads.
