| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 203. Communion |
| By John Bannister Tabb (1845–1909) |
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| ONCE when my heart was passion-free | |
| To learn of things divine, | |
| The soul of nature suddenly | |
| Outpoured itself in mine. | |
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| I held the secrets of the deep, | 5 |
| And of the heavens above; | |
| I knew the harmonies of sleep, | |
| The mysteries of love. | |
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| And for a moment’s interval | |
| The earth, the sky, the sea— | 10 |
| My soul encompassed, each and all, | |
| As now they compass me. | |
| |
| To one in all, to all in one— | |
| Since Love the work began— | |
| Life’s ever widening circles run, | 15 |
| Revealing God and man. | |
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