Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.
Archibald Lampman (18611899)253. The Clearer Self
B
And after I am dead and gone,
Through grades of effort and control
The marvellous work shall still go on.
Hath only lived, if he have shown
What greatness there can be in man
Above the measured and the known;
In gradual victory secure,
Grows ever with increasing light
The Energy serene and pure:
From age to age, from hour to hour,
Feels upward to some height at last
Of unimagined grace and power.
In folds of thwarting matter furled,
Ere death be nigh, while life is full,
O Master Spirit of the world,
In some small measure though it be,
Emerging from the waste and blind,
The clearer self, the grander me!