Harmonies (Howe collection)/The Inner Chamber
THE INNER CHAMBER
Peace dwelt with her, and faith, and gentleness,
And all things else that dwell with souls benign.
Hath she not left these in some visible shrine
Whereunto we may press
In holy pilgrimages, to renew
Our strength that had been weakness but for her?
Nay, there is naught for outward view;
I may not open any door and say,
"Here with these trappings of her mortal day
Some living part of her is yet astir."
And all things else that dwell with souls benign.
Hath she not left these in some visible shrine
Whereunto we may press
In holy pilgrimages, to renew
Our strength that had been weakness but for her?
Nay, there is naught for outward view;
I may not open any door and say,
"Here with these trappings of her mortal day
Some living part of her is yet astir."
This may not be, but reared within my heart
A secret, inner chamber stands apart,
All furnished forth with her.—There charity
And justice side by side appear,
Not as mere dreams of good,
But as they stood
Embodied in herself unchangeably:
A charity that spread like shafts of light,
Glowing with warmth and radiance near,
Yet searching, reaching every lair of night;
A justice, like God's mercy, fain to see
In every soul an equal weight and worth,
And, seeing, to withhold from none on earth
The bread of love, the cup of sympathy.
And here, the more to glorify the place
With what she was,
Are ancient firm beliefs in the old cause
Of truth eternal, and, through heaven-sent grace,
A smiling courage still by them to live.
Here, too, is humor, warm and sensitive,
Playing like a summer breeze
Through open windows flooded with the sun,
Tempering the air with all felicities
Of true proportion.
Hither I come for solace from the moil
And emptiness without;
And all about
The signs of her—these and so many more!—
Blend as they blent of yore
In aspirations deep
And yearnings oft untold
For them her inmost heart would ever keep
Inviolate from hurt or soil.
A secret, inner chamber stands apart,
All furnished forth with her.—There charity
And justice side by side appear,
Not as mere dreams of good,
But as they stood
Embodied in herself unchangeably:
A charity that spread like shafts of light,
Glowing with warmth and radiance near,
Yet searching, reaching every lair of night;
A justice, like God's mercy, fain to see
In every soul an equal weight and worth,
And, seeing, to withhold from none on earth
The bread of love, the cup of sympathy.
And here, the more to glorify the place
With what she was,
Are ancient firm beliefs in the old cause
Of truth eternal, and, through heaven-sent grace,
A smiling courage still by them to live.
Here, too, is humor, warm and sensitive,
Playing like a summer breeze
Through open windows flooded with the sun,
Tempering the air with all felicities
Of true proportion.
Hither I come for solace from the moil
And emptiness without;
And all about
The signs of her—these and so many more!—
Blend as they blent of yore
In aspirations deep
And yearnings oft untold
For them her inmost heart would ever keep
Inviolate from hurt or soil.
These thoughts of her like tapestries enfold
My inner chamber, whence I turn again
Refreshed, renewed to face the world of men.
My inner chamber, whence I turn again
Refreshed, renewed to face the world of men.
(1909)