IX.

So if Thou hadst been scorned in human eyes,

Too bright and near to be a glory then;

If as Truth's artist, Thou hadst been to men

A setter forth of strange divinities;

To after times, Thou, born in midday skies,

A sun, high up, out-blazing sudden, when

Its light had had its centuries eight and ten

To travel through the wretched void that lies

‘ Twixt souls and truth, hadst been a Love and Fear,

Worshipped on high from Magian's mountain-crest,

And all night long symbol'd by lamp-flames clear;

Thy sign, a star upon thy people's breast,

Where now a strange mysterious shape doth lie,

That once barred out the sun in noontide sky.