First Spirit

PALACE roof of cloudless nights! Paradise of golden lights! Deep, immeasurable, vast, Which art now and which wert then Of the present and the past, Of the eternal where and when, Presence-chamber, temple, home, Ever canopying dome Of acts and ages yet to come!

Glorious shapes have life in thee, Earth, and all earth’s company; Living globes which ever throng Thy deep chasms and wildernesses; And green worlds that glide along; And swift stars with flashing tresses; And icy moons most cold and bright, And mighty suns beyond the night, Atoms of intensest light.

Even thy name is as a God, Heaven! for thou art the abode Of that power which is the glass Wherein man his nature sees. Generations as they pass Worship thee with bended knees. Their unremaining gods and they Like a river roll away: Thou remainest such alway.