Fugitive comes, in significant rare moments,
Chance called by glinting sun or spreading view,
Bell tolling or bird singing or word spoken,
Suffusing peace; as if omniscience threw
A sudden ray on this life's darkened glass,
And for a moment there came streaming through
That crystal light whose radiance does surpass
Man's understanding: which his halting tongue
Has failed to match in phrase these ages long.
Lucent the moment glows; and small and clear,
A chord is touched we know not where nor whence,
Save that one throbbing end is anchored here:
Here in the wistful heart's own immanence.
But could our clumsy senses trace that clew,
Ere the occulting world shuts in again,
We know its fine spun thread would guide us to
Some halidome whose landscapes yet retain
That shining static peace which once we knew -
Should find, its strange exotic fears all past,
Man's weary exiled heart come home, come home, at last.