A Persian Lesson

For his o'erarching and last lesson the greybeard sufi,

In the fresh scent of the morning in the open air,

On the slope of a teeming Persian rose-garden,

Under an ancient chestnut-tree wide spreading its branches,

Spoke to the young priests and students.

“Finally my children, to envelop each word, each part of the rest,

Allah is all, all, all — immanent in every life and object,

May-be at many and many-a-more removes — yet Allah, Allah, Allah is there.

“Has the estray wander'd far? Is the reason-why strangely hidden?

Would you sound below the restless ocean of the entire world?

Would you know the dissatisfaction? the urge and spur of every life;

The something never still'd — never entirely gone? the invisible need of every seed?

“It is the central urge in every atom,

( Often unconscious, often evil, downfallen,)

To return to its divine source and origin, however distant,

Latent the same in subject and in object, without one exception.”