On News
I
News from a foreign country came,
As if my treasure and my wealth lay there:
So much it did my heart enflame
’Twas wont to call my soul into mine ear,
Which thither went to meet
The approaching sweet,
And on the threshold stood,
To entertain the unknown Good.
It hovered there
As if ’twould leave mine ear,
And was so eager to embrace
The joyful tidings as they came,
’Twould almost leave its dwelling-place,
To entertain that same.
II
As if the tidings were the things,
My very joys themselves, my foreign treasure,
Or else did bear them on their wings;
With so much joy they came, with so much pleasure.
My Soul stood at that gate
To recreate
Itself with bliss: And to
Be pleased with speed. A fuller view
It fain would take,
Yet journeys back would make
Unto my heart: as if ’twould fain
Go out to meet, yet stay within
To fit a place, to entertain,
And bring the tidings in.
III
What sacred instinct did inspire
My Soul in childhood with a hope so strong?
What secret force mov’d my desire
To expect my joys beyond the seas, so young?
Felicity I knew
Was out of view:
And being here alone,
I saw that happiness was gone
From me! For this,
I thirsted absent bliss,
And thought that sure beyond the seas,
Or else in something near at hand
I knew not yet, (since nought did please
I knew) my Bliss did stand.
IV
But little did the infant dream
That all the treasures of the world were by:
And that himself was so the cream
And crown of all which round about did lie.
Yet thus it was: The gem,
The diadem,
The ring enclosing all
That stood upon this earthly ball;
The Heavenly Eye,
Much wider than the sky,
Wherein they all included were,
The glorious Soul that was the King
Made to possess them, did appear
A small and little thing!