20 But, crying, knows his father near; And what I am beheld again
What is, and no man understands;
And out of darkness came the hands
That reach through nature, molding men.
3 V *
126
Love is and was my lord and king,
And in his presence I attend
2. He does not discover satisfactory proof of God's exist a designer. existence in the 18th-century argument that 3. Cf. Carlyle's Sartor Resartns (1833?34), 'The because objects in nature are designed there must Everlasting No' (p. 1006).
.
IN MEMORIAM, EPILOGUE / 1185
To hear the tidings of my friend,
Which every hour his couriers bring.
5
Love is and was my king and lord,
And will be, though as yet I keep
Within the court on earth, and sleep
Encompassed by his faithful guard,
And hear at times a sentinel
io Who moves about from place to place,
And whispers to the worlds of space,
In the deep night, that all is well.
127
And all is well, though faith and form4
Be sundered in the night of fear;
Well roars the storm to those that hear
A deeper voice across the storm,
5 Proclaiming social truth shall spread,
And justice, even though thrice again
The red fool-fury of the Seine
Should pile her barricades with dead.5
But ill for him that wears a crown,
io And him, the lazar,6 in his rags!
They tremble, the sustaining crags;
The spires of ice are toppled down,
And molten up, and roar in flood;
The fortress crashes from on high,
15 The brute earth lightens7 to the sky,
And the great Aeon8 sinks in blood,
And compassed by the fires of hell,
While thou, dear spirit, happy star,
O'erlook'st the tumult from afar,
20 And smilest, knowing all is well.
# s &
129
Dear friend, far off, my lost desire, So far, so near in woe and weal,? happiness
4. Traditional institutions through which faith date earlier than 1848, the reference to three rev- was formerly expressed, such as the Church. olutions (line 6) was prophetic. Seine: the river 5. Reference to revolutionary uprisings in France, that runs through Paris. in each of which a king lost his throne (line 9): in 6. Pauper suffering from disease. 1789 against Louis XVI, in 1830 against Charles 7. Is lit up by fire. X, and in 1848 against Louis-
