Take me and bear. Descend Into these deeps of death, Wherever the light may lead, Wherever the way may wend; And give to my failing breath, O Spirit, thy words of deed. 1890-3. * * * * * IN EXILE * * * * * I * * * * * DESERT I This profit yet remains Of exile and the hour That life in losing gains Perhaps a fuller flower. Not less the prunèd shoot, Not less the barren year, Which yields the perfect fruit, Which makes the meaning clear. For on this desert soil A blessing comes unsought— Space for a single toil, Time for a single thought. When in distractions tost, Since oft distractions claim For moments never lost Of each its higher aim, We live, we learn the wealth The joyous hours may bring, But jealous time by stealth Puts all of it to wing; Pursuing empty arts We gain no noble goal, And lose, in learning parts, The grandeur of the whole. If Patience, pouring tears— She cannot but lament The long unfruitful years Of exile, idly spent— Have patience, she will find They were not all in vain, But each has left behind A little store of gain— A wider wisdom bought With labour; problems solved; The themes of inner thought More thoroughly revolved. So one who entertain’d The prosperous of the earth; No good from any gain’d, But lost his wealth and worth; In wrath he gather’d round The indigent and old; Each wretch, amazed he found, Had left a gift of gold. So one who sought a land Where all the earth is ore; But had he sifted sand He would have gather’d more. II The Sun arose and took The lofty heav’ns of right; From out the heav’ns he shook The pestilence of his light. He paced upon his path And from his right hand hurl’d The javelins of his wrath, Contemptuous of the world. Before his scornful lips The forests fell down dead, And scowling in eclipse Disbanding thunders fled. He fills the hills with fire And blasts the barren plain; He hath stript the stricken briar, And slain the thorn again. He cracks the rocks, and cakes The quagmires into crust, And slays the snake, and makes The dead leaf writhe in dust. He halts in heav’n half way And blackens earth with light; And the dark doom of day Lies on us like the night. A Land of clamorous cries; Of everlasting light; Of noises in the skies And noises in the night.