Unknown Knowledge

O, soul that seest far off the light That is not seen of human sight, That knowest truths of God begot And how thou knowest knowest not!

We know not what to hope or fear: Thou speakest, but we do not hear, Or hearing some low-whispered word, But half believe that we have heard.

For while to us the old is new, And youth has all its work to do, And o’er us rear the heights sublime That we have set ourselves to climb,

While the quick brain has thronging dreams And spins its airy-threaded schemes To catch the great world’s tardy praise And glorify inglorious days--

Through all the hurrying toil and strife, The uproar of this sordid life In which we sorrow and rejoice, O soul, how can we hear thy voice?

But when the heat of strife is past And quiet folds us round at last, And all our unaccomplished schemes Are dimmer than remembered dreams,

When deaf ambition’s restless will Is either satisfied or still, And tides that rose in stormy rage Ebb calmly from the shores of age--

O soul! in some such quiet lain We’ll listen for thy voice again, Our hearts by time made wise and meek, And in the silence hear thee speak.

And listening thus and hearing thee The light thou seest we shall see, Shall know what thou for many a year Wert saying when we could not hear,

And find the truth for which we yearn, Which seems so dark and hard to learn, A clear and simple thing that, lo! We always knew, and did not know.