234. The Idea

BENEATH this world of stars and flowers

That rolls in visible deity,

I dream another world is ours

And is the soul of all we see.

It hath no form, it hath no spirit;

It is perchance the Eternal Mind;

Beyond the sense that we inherit

I feel it dim and undefined.

How far below the depth of being,

How wide beyond the starry bound

It rolls unconscious and unseeing,

And is as Number or as Sound.

And through the vast fantastic visions

Of all this actual universe,

It moves unswerved by our decisions,

And is the play that we rehearse.