| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
| |
| 165. The Prism of Life |
| By John Addington Symonds (1840–1893) |
| |
| ALL that began with God, in God must end: | |
| All lives are garnered in His final bliss: | |
| All wills hereafter shall be one with His: | |
| When in the sea we sought, our spirits blend. | |
| Rays of pure light, which one frail prism may rend | 5 |
| Into conflicting colours, meet and kiss | |
| With manifold attraction, yet still miss | |
| Contentment, while their kindred hues contend. | |
| Break but that three-edged glass:—inviolate | |
| The sundered beams resume their primal state, | 10 |
| Weaving pure light in flawless harmony. | |
| Thus decomposed, subject to love and strife, | |
| God’s thought, made conscious through man’s mortal life, | |
| Resumes through death the eternal unity. | |
|
|
