I

O N the far verge of memory,
Where wakeful consciousness doth dawn
Like light above oblivion,
The Pilgrim's spiritual eye
Beheld himself afar,
The re-created boy;
The purple glow that round him shone,
When elastic youth had drawn
Rays as from a borrowed star,
From earth a glory and a joy;
Heedless how the days or hours,
Carelessly held human flowers,
Faded or drooped, which could themselves renew.

II.

Beside grey Ocean's flood,
That Boy alone with solitude,
Gathered substance as he grew,
Till on the rapt pilgrim's eye,
Dwelt his self-identity.
On the yellow beach the child
Listened to those waters wild,
The ringing voices of the crisped waves heard;
The white foam of their laughter seen as they
Tossed round them the crystalline spray;
While his inmost life was stirred
With an aching restlessness,
An undeveloped happiness,
Standing on that beach where rolled
At his feet power uncontrolled.
The great space around him spread,
Allied with mystery and dread.
A glimpse of what was in him sealed,
By coming time to be revealed,
Broke upon him like a ray
Of divine life passed away,
Seen, yea, felt within him still;
An indistinct, yet mighty melody,
Echoed and cherished by the unconscious will.

III

When the tempest walked the wood,
And the levin rent the sky,
And the autumnal leaves were swirled
Round him, and the cloud-scud curled
By the wild wind as in mirth,
Drifting hurled again to earth;
Then with steadfast mien subdued,
And a calm and watchful eye,
Looked the Boy out in that hour:
For he felt that he was part
Of the earth-perturbing power
Whose home dwelt within his heart.
The living echo he of things
Grown with his imaginings,
Notes of melodies that played
With the branches as they strayed,
Or the thunder-tones that told
Of the Godhead while they rolled.
They were records he had known;
Inmates cherished as his own,
There by mighty Nature shown.
He felt in those hours to her
Life-bound; an idolater
By the Altar of the Sea,
There ordained her priest to be.