Poems (Taylor)/An Art-Lover to Christ
AN ART-LOVER TO CHRIST
(Towards the End of the Ages of Faith)
If these I love, what love have I for Thee,
Since in her treasuries the heart will be?
Some, it may be, shall triumph, strong to seek
And find both these and Thee. But I am weak.
Unto mine idols am I wedded fast;
And with them would I perish at the last.
Since in her treasuries the heart will be?
Some, it may be, shall triumph, strong to seek
And find both these and Thee. But I am weak.
Unto mine idols am I wedded fast;
And with them would I perish at the last.
(O beauty of great colour, great desires,
Great throes of music, clangour of great spires,
Mystical marvel of great verse, great dream
Of carven faces, and O thou supreme
Beauty of perfect love, the perfect art,—
Ye do consume with ecstasy mine heart.
God's images—Nay, for your only sake
I flower and fade, labour and dream and wake.)
Great throes of music, clangour of great spires,
Mystical marvel of great verse, great dream
Of carven faces, and O thou supreme
Beauty of perfect love, the perfect art,—
Ye do consume with ecstasy mine heart.
God's images—Nay, for your only sake
I flower and fade, labour and dream and wake.)
Not Thee and these! Thou art too great and sweet
To brook a cloven worship at Thy feet.
I do not murmur. Fold Thy lovers, Thou,
In Thy blue Arcady. But here and now
I gather all the joy of Paradise
With faint adoring hands, and soft stilled eyes.
To brook a cloven worship at Thy feet.
I do not murmur. Fold Thy lovers, Thou,
In Thy blue Arcady. But here and now
I gather all the joy of Paradise
With faint adoring hands, and soft stilled eyes.
These perish; Thou endurest?—Even so.
All perishing things are loveliest, I know.
The Music these, the fainting Echo I,—
Rather than live with Thee, with them I die!
Nor shall thine angry trumpets rend that rest,
For Thou art noble; and I love Them best.
All perishing things are loveliest, I know.
The Music these, the fainting Echo I,—
Rather than live with Thee, with them I die!
Nor shall thine angry trumpets rend that rest,
For Thou art noble; and I love Them best.