DE PROFUNDIS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIV, Issue VIII, 23 February 1895, Page 181

DE PROFUNDIS.

One word to the East from the West, As a gull flies over the sea ; One word to the woman that I love best, That shall tell the soul of me. Weakness and doubt and wrong, And this was the soul of a man. Sin, and sorrow, and song, And hopes that died and began, For they died and began and died. As a star flickers out in the night And shines again—so he tried, And now light, and darkness, and light. Then a woman came—a wind that blows When the weedy boat lies still, A wind that blows till the dark sea flows. And the dark sails flap and fill. Then a woman came—a sun that shines, When the old world dotes half dead, A sun that shines, till the gray snows divine, And the gold flowers riot instead. She came, this woman—the man knelt down With his face in her knees and said : • The grass that was green in youth went brown, And hopes that were high went dead. You came and a star shone out of the night To the shepherd that watched—you came. And the wind blew out of God’s mouth ; a light Made the darkness reel with flame ; And a dove flew out of the glowing air To a blasted tree ; and the dove Sang, as the wind to the trees that are bare— Sang love, and hope, and love.’ She came—and together the twain of them trod, And hand in hand the world was well. For she was a woman who came from God, And he was a man from hell.