34 THERE IS NO AGE There is no age-the swiftly passing hour That measures out our days of pilgrimage And breaks the heart of every summer flower, Shall find again the child's soul in the sage. There is no age, for youth is the divine ; And the white radiance of the timeless soul Burns like a silver lamp in that dark shrine That is the tired pilgrim's ultimate goal. THE THISTLE THERE'S no shade in the woods, through the moveless fir branches the sunlight streams down, Lying thick on the roots and mosses, and delicate fronds of wild fern, And the gray hills stand carven about us like the cold dead walls of a town, And the pines are as pillars, the mountains like marble towers at sunset burn, Yet here on the sunburnt heights of the world the springs of the cool rivers are, Up here on the high mountain meadow lost to the life of the plain below, 36 THE THISTLE The thistle has bloomed in a great white flower that dreams on the grass like a star For out of sharp darkness and sword blades in silence the light of the world must grow Whilst away on the distant mountain side the torrent thunders afar, And the thirsty valley stretches her lips to meet the cold touch of the snow. Oh ye men who have built up the marble, and carved out your hearts in the stone, Behold the white flower in the meadow was shaped by the hands of a God, By the storms of the world your high towers shall be blasted and overthrown, But the white thistle flower is rooted firm in the will of the life-giving sod. THE INNER LIGHT BETWEEN the mountains and the sea Between the darkness and the light The mystic earth seemed but dull ground The druid vision of the Shee. 38 THE INNER LIGHT I stand between the night and day Once more in the dim world of dreams, Far out at sea the sunset gleams. Now between silence and a song Once more the haunted hour stands still, Through the greenlands a strange voice glides, And lights flash near the quicken tree, Yet deep in the deep soul abides The druid vision of the Shee. |