INDIRECTION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 42, 17 October 1891, Page 479

INDIRECTION.

Fair are the flowers and the children, but their subtle suggestion is fairer; Rare is the roseburst of dawn, but the secret that clasps it is rarer ; Sweet the exultance of song, but the strain that proceeds it is sweeter ; And never was poem yet writ, but the meaning outmastered the metre. Never a daisy that grows but a mystery guideth the growing ; Never a river that flows but a majesty sceptres the flowing ; Never a Shakespeare that soaied but a stronger than he did enfold him ; Never a prophet foretells but a mightier seer hath foretold him. Back of the canvas that throbs the painter is hinted and hidden; Into the statue that breathes the soul of the sculptor is hidden ; Under the joy that is felt lie the infinite issues of feeling ; Crowning the glory revealed is the glory that crowns the revealing. Great are the symbols of being, butthat which is symbolled is greater ; Vast the create and behold, but vaster the inward creator, Back of the sound broods the silence, back of the gift stands the giving : Back of the hand that receives, thrill the sensitive nerves of receiving. Space is as nothing to spirit, the deed is outdone by the doing ; The heart of the wooer is warm, but warmer the heart of the wooing; And up from the pits where these shiver, and up from the heights where those shine, Twain voices and shadows swim starward, and the essence of life is divine.

Richard Realf.