A MYSTERY, 



I saw the wheat in billows roll, 



A verdant ocean, stirred with joy, 

 It set a-throbbing in my soul 



The madcap freedom of a boy: — 

 The blue sky bended far above, 



A stagnant sea from pole to pole, 

 Clouds, like aerial ice-bergs, drove 



On that still ocean, without shoal: — 



The subtle spirit of the sky, 



Alastor of my solitude. 

 Thrilled all my working pulses high. 



With visions of life's magnitude — 

 (The wondrous vision of the whole!) 



At once upon my startled eye. 

 Stood naked the primeval law. 



Life's noiseless currents eddied by, 

 The universal heart I saw, 



Swayed by the cosmic oversoul. — 



I trembled but I did not fall, 



I ceased, and yet I did not die. 

 But from my eyes there fell the pall, 



My soul no longer wondered why : 

 I knew the secret of the world, 



Of night and day, of life and death. 

 For one brief instant, onward whirled. 



My being breathed with godlike breath : 

 The sky spun like a mighty bowl, 



I saw the wheat in billows roll. 



Edward O. Jackson. 



192 



