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Henry O'Meara Ballads of America

Decoration

THE HIGHER VISION

IN REPLY TO A DECLARATION OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL *
"WE know not, live not, past this mundane sight"-
Proclaims a groper in Agnostic night;
Then must we limn in clay what men may know,
What lines his loftier visions claim below-
Must carnal bounded themes be deified,
Heaven's craved revealings to his Hope denied-
Life deemed a chain with fleshly links inwrought,
The world a charnel house for soul-reft thought?
 
Look to that law set primal in his heart
Whose glow the pencilling rays Divine impart;
'Tis but in prostrate purpose, loth to rise,
'Tis with the prone of will the low view lies;
High-lit analogies the answer tell;
O'er torpid Nature fires resurgent dwell;
Dead bulbs as 'lumined lilies in such ray
Arise and breathe in Resurrection's day;
Numb chrysalis forms take iridescent wing
Pent germs from prisoning orbs soar free and sing.
 
Is man more gross than bulb or grub or germ,
His essence - through all matters cycling term -
Less volatile than those of basest guise
That mount to ether, baffling corporal eyes?
His vaulting flame less alien to decay
Than sparks that out corrosion light their way,
While in tfteir flash ethereal space is riven
And circumfusing arc spans earth and heaven?
 
Creation's universal voice replies,
Despite transition, psychic force ne'er dies -
Repels the phasma of a spirit-death --
Immortal essence spent with mortal breath;
Dispels Nirvana dreams of palsied rest,
Spurning their lethal peace for life possessed -
Telling that man shall see, his being shine
Beyond all cosmic spheres in light Divine
Living as everlasting ages roll
In higher sight - in holier vision of his Soul!
 

Decoration

A YOUNG HEART STRICKEN CONTENTS LET NOT THY FACE AVERTED BE

 

Edited and formatted by Sheldon Brown
updated Wednesday, April 19, 2000
URL: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/org/omeara/higher.html
Copyright © 2000, 2007 Sheldon Brown