Three from Nicholson & Lee

Selections from The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse.

"Flower in the crannied wall"

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;—
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

The Daisy

Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide,
   Like all created things, secrets from me,
   And stand a barrier to eternity.
And I, how can I praise thee well and wide

From where I dwell—upon the hither side?
   Thou little veil for so great mystery,
   When shall I penetrate all things and thee,
And then look back? For this I must abide,

Till thou shalt grow and fold and be unfurled
Literally between me and the world.
   Then shall I drink from in beneath a spring,

And from a poet's side shall read his book.
O daisy mine, what will it be to look
   From God's side even of such a simple thing?

Alice Meynell (1847–1922)

I see His Blood upon the Rose

I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916)

The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse (1917), ed. D. H. S. Nicholson and A. H. E. Lee, pp. 162, 461f, 561.

See also The Poems of Alice Meynell and The Poems of Joseph Mary Plunkett at Catholic Poets @ ELCore.Net.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 08/10/03 07:31:51 AM
Categorized as Literary & Sunday Poetry Series.