III — BEYOND CHURCH

Ye that weep in sleep,

Souls and bodies bound,

Ye that all night keep

Watch for change, and weep

That no change is found;

Ye that cry and die,

And the world goes on

Without ear or eye,

And the days go by

Till all days are gone;

Man shall do for you,

Men the sons of man,

What no God would do

That they sought unto

While the blind years ran.

Brotherhood of good,

Equal laws and rights,

Freedom, whose sweet food

Feeds the multitude

All their days and nights

With the bread full-fed

Of her body blest

And the soul's wine shed

From her table spread

Where the world is guest,

Mingling me and thee,

When like light of eyes

Flashed through thee and me

Truth shall make us free,

Liberty make wise;

These are they whom day

Follows and gives light

Whence they see to slay

Night, and burn away

All the seed of night.

What of thine and mine,

What of want and wealth,

When one faith is wine

For my heart and thine

And one draught is health?

For no sect elect

Is the soul's wine poured

And her table decked;

Whom should man reject

From man's common board?

Gods refuse and choose,

Grudge and sell and spare;

None shall man refuse,

None of all men lose,

None leave out of care.

No man's might of sight

Knows that hour before;

No man's hand hath might

To put back that light

For one hour the more.

Not though all men call,

Kneeling with void hands,

Shall they see light fall

Till it come for all

Tribes of men and lands.

No desire brings fire

Down from heaven by prayer,

Though man's vain desire

Hang faith's wind-struck lyre

Out in tuneless air.

One hath breath and saith

What the tune shall be -

Time, who puts his breath

Into life and death,

Into earth and sea.

To and fro years flow,

Fill their tides and ebb,

As his fingers go

Weaving to and fro

One unfinished web.

All the range of change

Hath its bounds therein,

All the lives that range

All the byways strange

Named of death or sin.

Star from far to star

Speaks, and white moons wake,

Watchful from afar

What the night's ways are

For the morning's sake.

Many names and flames

Pass and flash and fall,

Night-begotten names,

And the night reclaims,

As she bare them, all.

But the sun is one,

And the sun's name Right;

And when light is none

Saving of the sun,

All men shall have light.

All shall see and be

Parcel of the morn;

Ay, though blind were we,

None shall choose but see

When that day is born.