THE ATTACK

WHEN we came out of the wood

Was a great light!

The night uprisen stood

In white.

I wondered, I looked around

It was so fair. The bright

Stubble upon the ground

Shone white

Like any field of snow;

Yet warm the chase

Of faint night-breaths did go

Across my face!

White-bodied and warm the night was,

Sweet-scented to hold in my throat.

White and alight the night was.

A pale stroke smote

The pulse through the whole bland being

Which was This and me;

A pulse that still went fleeing,

Yet did not flee.

After the terrible rage, the death,

This wonder stood glistening?

All shapes of wonder, with suspended breath,

Arrested listening

In ecstatic reverie.

The whole, white Night!—

With wonder, every black tree

Blossomed outright.

I saw the transfiguration

And the present Host.

Transubstantiation

Of the Luminous Ghost.