I. 4

Hymn the Finders! Hymn the bold Trusters of Earth, those patient ones, That listen to the subtle words Of Silence in the streams and stones; Ponderers of the secret-souled Bodies quick with ignorant being; Followers of the clues that thread Differences and accords; Wooers of what powers agreeing May the hands of man bestead; Seers who have turned aside From the greeds that ask and ache Blinded to all else beside,— Letting the clear spirit take Truth from vision open-eyed. Breaks the bud for him that sees In a world of promises.

Hymn the breaker of the dark, Hymn the finder of the flame, Troubler of the essential spark Lurking in the withered pith Or from stony prison freed, Friend and fury, holy need And fierce destroyer, hard to tame, Risen, a God to wrestle with! Hymn the bender of the wheel, Mother of the shapes of speed! Hymn the launcher of the keel Carrying thought’s arrow-aim Beyond the sundown,—sowing seed Of man on coasts untrod before, To widen memory’s haunted shore And add the nearness of a name.

Far-descended old desire! That stirred in swarming forest-ages, Prowled by fear whose stealthy eye Watched from glooms, where hunger-rages Ravened; see at last the Hand Emerging human, stretched to try Shapes of things with wondering pleasure, When its strength forgets to kill; Tempted on to understand, Serving ways of secret will,— Fit and fashion, poise and measure. Hymn the hand that builds the wall And spans the river, and arches over Man the worshipper and lover Song-like stone; the hand so strong To strike, yet in whose touch is all Life’s mystery that wooes from things Their strength, as music from the strings,— Touch of the mind that seeks behind The world for the befriending Mind.

Hymn the openers of the gates, Hymn the changers of the fates! Hymn the seekers! them that saw, Past the seeming starry roof Of human earth, in mazy plan Bright eternities of law; Them that neared those orbs to man, Unafraid, and put to proof Divination’s ancient scheme; Stept into the timeless stream, Star-like spirits among the stars! Hymn the seekers! Chosen souls, Grapnel’d in the very marrow By a thought that night and day Draws them whither their unknown Mighty lover far away Beckons them to the frore Poles Or new meridians; like to him Who climbed in Panama the tree, And splendour of untravelled sea Smote him like a glorious arrow: Never shall he rest again Till he sail that virgin main! Or like him who quietly Sitting in his Polar tent Found so great a way to die; Hope-forsaken, famine-spent, Wrote his words of faith and cheer Till the pen dropt from the hand That wrote them. Hymn the lost, who never Found, but kept high heart to steer Onward toward the mark they meant, Sailing out of sight of land. Wail not them, nor lost endeavour, For they heard what tranced the ear, Filled the exulting soul, the song Pale and prudent mortals fear, Song of those who, out of Time, Sing the heights the immortals climb, The Sirens.