Yet, blow the spark, it runs back, spreads itself The soul that served me, till it task once more Trying to taste again the truth of things "their very superficial truth; As that ye are my sons, that it is long And I am only he, your brother John, Who saw and heard, and could remember all. What if the truth broke on me from above With head wool-white, eyes flame, and feet like brass, I who now shudder only and surmise 'How did your brother bear that sight and live?' "If I live yet, it is for good, more love - Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands That which was from the first, the Word of Life. How will it be when none more saith 'I saw'? "Such ever was love's way: to rise, it stoops. Since I, whom Christ's mouth taught, was bidden teach, I went, for many years, about the world, Saying 'It was so; so I heard and saw,' Speaking as the case asked: and men believed. In Patmos isle; I was not bidden teach, To choose or change: I wrote, and men believed. And, reasoning from my knowledge, merely taught Or I would pen a letter to a friend And urge the same as friend, nor less nor more: But at the last, why, I seemed left alive To tell dry sea-beach gazers how I fared When there was mid-sea, and the mighty things; Left to repeat, 'I saw, I heard, I knew,' And go all over the old ground again, With Antichrist already in the world, And many Antichrists, who answered prompt 'Am I not Jasper as thyself art John? Nay, young, whereas through age thou mayest forget: I never thought to call down fire on such, Pick up the scorpion, tread the serpent dumb; Had grown (or else my soul was grown to match, Of new significance and fresh result; What first were guessed as points, I now knew stars, And named them in the Gospel I have writ. For men said, 'It is getting long ago': 'Where is the promise of His coming?' asked These young ones in their strength, as loath to wait, Of me, who, when their sires were born, was old. I, for I loved them, answered, joyfully, Ye brought me here, and I supposed the end, As I had slidden down and fallen afar, Grasping the while for stay at facts which snap, Feeling for foothold through a blank profound, Who say I hear said or conceive they say 'Was John at all, and did he say he saw? Assure us, ere we ask what he might see!' “And how shall I assure them? Can they share -They who have flesh, a veil of youth and strength About each spirit, that needs must bide its time, Living and learning still as years assist Which wear the thickness thin, and let man see With me who hardly am withheld at all, But shudderingly, scarce a shred between, Is it for nothing we grow old and weak, We whom God loves? When pain ends, gain ends too. To me, that story ay, that Life and Death Of which I wrote it was'. to me, it is; - Is, here and now: I apprehend naught else. Is not God now i' the world His power first made? Closed with and cast and conquered, crucified Love, wrong, and pain, what see I else around? To the right hand of the throne — what is it beside, See I the need yet transiency of both, I saw the Power; I see the Love, once weak, That, moving o'er the spirit of man, unblinds But ye, the children, His beloved ones too, Ye need, as I should use an optic glass |