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| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
| 235. Antiphon to the Holy Spirit |
| By Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux (Robinson-Darmesteter) (b. 1857) |
Men and Women sing. Men. O THOU that movest all, O Power | |
| That bringest life where’er Thou art, | |
| O Breath of God in star and flower, | |
| Mysterious aim of soul and heart; | |
| Within the thought that cannot grasp Thee | 5 |
| In its unfathomable hold, | |
| We worship Thee who may not clasp Thee, | |
| O God, unreckoned and untold! | |
Women. O Source and Sea of Love, O Spirit | |
| That makest every soul akin, | 10 |
| O Comforter whom we inherit, | |
| We turn and worship Thee within! | |
| To give beyond all dreams of giving, | |
| To lose ourselves as Thou in us, | |
| We long; for Thou, O Fount of living, | 15 |
| Art lost in Thy creation thus! | |
Men. The mass of unborn matter knew Thee, | |
| And lo! the splendid silent sun | |
| Sprang out to be a witness to Thee | |
| Who art the All, who art the One; | 20 |
| The airy plants unseen that flourish | |
| Their floating strands of filmy rose, | |
| Too small for sight, are Thine to nourish; | |
| For Thou art all that breathes and grows. | |
Women. Thou art the ripening of the fallows, | 25 |
| The swelling of the buds in rain; | |
| Thou art the joy of birth that hallows | |
| The rending of the flesh in twain; | |
| O Life, O Love, how undivided | |
| Thou broodest o’er this world of Thine, | 30 |
| Obscure and strange, yet surely guided | |
| To reach a distant end divine! | |
Men. We know Thee in the doubt and terror | |
| That reels before the world we see; | |
| We know Thee in the faiths of error; | 35 |
| We know Thee most who most are free. | |
| This phantom of the world around Thee | |
| Is vast, divine, but not the whole: | |
| We worship Thee, and we have found Thee | |
| In all that satisfies the soul! | 40 |
Men and Women. How shall we serve, how shall we own Thee, | |
| O breath of Love and Life and Thought? | |
| How shall we praise, who are not shown Thee? | |
| How shall we serve, who are as nought? | |
| Yet, though Thy worlds maintain unbroken | 45 |
| The silence of their awful round, | |
| A voice within our souls hath spoken, | |
| And we who seek have more than found. |
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