Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/58

That other's eyes filled their blue deeps with fire,
And fair the spirit floated in his face
Brightly upraised; there life's mysterious throe
On every feature set its delicate seal.
"Her child!" with echoing lips, he seemed to say;
"Dear motherhood!" he sighed, half-heard; and, rapt,
Thought gathered in him from the speechless deeps;
Then broke the sounding wave: "O mother-might!
O passion of the child-heart streaming back
Upon the breasts of being! O first sweet throb,
When from the ocean-filling horn of morn,
And from the porphyry-clouded font of eve,
God poured on me the rose and amber light
Baptismal, and my soul's awakening was,
And all my boyhood was one altar-watch!
And when beneath the starry roof of years
My soul caught glimpses of this glowing frame,
This rock-ribbed base of earth, this broad-flung sky,
This seamless air, the realm and throne of light,
This blossoming pave inlaid with azure seas,
This carve of riven-cloven continents,
This fret of rainbows and the wingèd winds,