| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 388. The Paradox |
| By Gertrude M. Hort |
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I
WHEN I have gained the Hill | |
| Where beats the clear and rigid light of God | |
| Full on the path by fearless comrades trod; | |
| When I have tuned to theirs my will and word, | |
| And by my prompting voice their ranks are stirred | 5 |
| To hail each height with ‘Higher! Higher still!’ | |
| That luring glow which from the Valley streams | |
| Warns me I am not what my spirit seems. | |
| |
II
But when my life descends | |
| Into the Hollow, where no wild thoughts reach, | 10 |
| And all that lawful yearning can beseech | |
| Sits at my hearth, or in my garden grows; | |
| When I need match no more with noble foes, | |
| Nor share the yoke with unrelenting friends, | |
| That strange veiled star which o’er the Hill-top beams, | 15 |
| Shows me I am not what my body dreams! | |
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