| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 209. ‘Strange, all-absorbing Love’ |
| By Digby Mackworth Dolben (1848–1867) |
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| STRANGE, all-absorbing Love, who gatherest | |
| Unto Thy glowing all my pleasant dew, | |
| Then delicately my garden waterest, | |
| Drawing the old, to pour it back anew: | |
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| In the dim glitter of the dawning hours | 5 |
| ‘Not so,’ I said, ‘but still those drops of light, | |
| Heart-shrined among the petals of my flowers, | |
| Shall hold the memory of the starry night | |
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| ‘So fresh, no need of showers shall there be.’— | |
| Ah, senseless gardener! must it come to pass | 10 |
| That ’neath the glaring noon thou shouldest see | |
| Thine earth become as iron, His heavens as brass? | |
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| Nay rather, O my Sun, I will be wise, | |
| Believe in Love which may not yet be seen, | |
| Yield Thee my earth-drops, call Thee from the skies, | 15 |
| In soft return, to keep my bedding green. | |
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| So when the bells at Vesper-tide shall sound, | |
| And the dead ocean o’er my garden flows, | |
| Upon the Golden Altar may be found | |
| Some scarlet berries and a Christmas rose. | 20 |
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